The right of military personnel to defense in the context of the European integration Ukraine

Abstract

The relevance of the article is because certain aspects of harmonisation of legislation of Ukraine and the European Union member states, which are NATO members, in particular, in terms of ensuring the rights of military personnel to defence within criminal proceedings, require their own separate scientific understanding in the current context.
 The article analyses the provisions of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950, the Agreement between the Parties to the North Atlantic Treaty regarding the Status of their Forces of their Armed Forces, and national legislation of Ukraine.
 The author notes that today in Ukraine there is no separate system of military justice and no specialisation of attorneys at the level of law in cases of this category has been introduced. Given that our country is currently facing a full-scale invasion, and the establishment of a military justice system following the example of certain NATO member states requires significant budgetary expenditures, it seems appropriate to introduce mandatory specialisation of lawyers providing legal assistance to military personnel in criminal proceedings.
 At the same time, NATO member states do not have a same vision of the need to introduce a separate system of military justice, but the existence of agreed standards of legal protection of our military personnel and military personnel of these countries is one of the integral elements of Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.
 In connection with the above, there is already an urgent need to study and implement the above standards in national legislation, including, inter alia, the consolidation of provisions in the legislation on the specialisation of lawyers providing legal aid in criminal proceedings of this category.