Criminal Prohibitions Research Articles

Who is Afraid of the Crime of Aggression?

Abstract There is no question that deterring the illegal use of force is a noble goal. Unfortunately, the crime of aggression, heralded as a major accomplishment when adopted by the Assembly of States Parties, is but a pale shadow of the kind of criminal prohibition that might have convinced would-be aggressors that they will be held accountable for their belligerent acts. Instead, as this article explains, the crime of aggression at the International Criminal Court is so jurisdictionally narrow, so substantively limited, and so unlikely to promote domestic prosecutions that its deterrent value is essentially non-existent. Moreover, danger abounds in the very act of activation — the danger that victims (state and individual) might assume that the era of impunity for aggression is coming to an end. Nothing could be further from truth.

SOME ISSUES OF ARRESTING SECURITIES IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

The features of the seizure of securities in comparison with the general rules for the seizure of property in criminal proceedings are investigated. The purposes of arresting securities in criminal proceedings are analyzed. The question is raised about the reasons why the legislator separated securities from other property in relation to the possibility of arrest to ensure the execution of a sentence in part of a civil claim. The connection between the characteristic properties inherent only in securities, due to their economic and substantive nature, and the content of the criminal procedure prohibition, which is established by the court when seizing securities, is discussed. It is pointed out that it is necessary to develop criteria and limits for the establishment by the court in criminal proceedings of prohibitions on the exercise of rights on seized securities. The applicability of the general rules for the seizure of property in criminal proceedings in terms of the seizure and transfer of the seized property for custody to documentary and non-documentary securities is analyzed. The issue of developing criteria and other rules for making a decision on the seizure and transfer of seized securities for safekeeping, as well as a procedural mechanism for protecting the interests of participants in criminal proceedings from the loss of their value by seized securities, is being raised.

Coercion versus facilitation: Context and the implementation of anti-FGM/C law

AbstractA common policy response to female genital mutilation/cutting (“FGM/C”) is the enactment of criminal prohibitions. The implementation of such prohibitions requires significant state capacity, which is often associated with the coercion. We examine compliance with anti-FGM/C law in Burkina Faso and Kenya, two countries which are thought to have markedly different state capacity and where the practice of FGM/C has been widespread. Using a hard-case comparison and both qualitative and quantitative approaches, including a list experiment to elicit accurate responses regarding the current state of FGM/C practice, we find that Burkina Faso and Kenya have achieved comparatively similar compliance with their respective anti-FGM/C laws. We explain this surprising finding by pointing to the different implementation approaches taken by each state, one coercive and one facilitative, and the degree to which those approaches were well-matched to the attitudes of their respective populations. This paired comparison suggests that coercively weak states may still be able to secure compliance with their laws. It also suggests that academics and policymakers alike should consider the numerous other capacities states possess beyond simple coercion.

Comparative Analysis of the Criminal and Legal Protection of Morality in the Legislations of Ukraine and Moldova

The article under studies relies on the understanding that the future of any state, society and mankind on the whole largely depends on the moral virtues of each individual. However, today's moral, spiritual and cultural basics are seriously challenged, annihilated and neglected.
 Resting on a comparative-legal analysis of the current criminal legislation of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, the article deals with the peculiarities of the criminal and legal protection of morality, identifies in the above legislations certain common and distinctive features in the context of existence and construction of legal norms, investigates their structural elements and, eventually, determines types of punishment.
 It has been substantiated that Ukrainian criminal legislation is rather progressive in terms of the criminal and legal protection of morality. It might be explained by the fact that respective criminal and legal prohibitions not only have been reflected in a special section of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, but are also described there in detail. In addition, these prohibitions are marked with partial, but at the same time significant and expedient changes and supplements that completely comply with the present-day challenges (for instance, in terms of liability for cruel treatment of animals, vandalizing a grave or other burial place or the body of the deceased, etc.). Particular emphasis has been laid on the fact that due to the recent changes in the Criminal Code, which came into force in March, 2021, especially striking are the elements of such crimes as access to child pornography, its acquisition, storage, import, transportation or other movement, production, sale and dissemination (Art. 301-1), and carrying out of entertaining action of sexual character with participation of the minor (Art. 301-2).
 On the other hand, the criminal legislation of Moldova does not contain a separate structural part, which would systematize all socially hazardous actions regarding morality. Instead, certain articles on the protection of social morality are enshrined in different chapters of a Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova. It is also important that the article under discussion draws a conclusion that the protection of social morality in the criminal legislation of Moldova comprises both traditional for most states norms (for example, liability for pimping, illegal acts on pornographic objects, vandalizing a grave, etc.) and not quite common ones (liability for incest, obtaining child prostitution services; cruel treatment of animals by a person responsible for the care, protection and welfare of animals, for training or veterinary care; vandalism; debauched actions in the form of exhibitionism, compelling to participate in making pornographic performances, etc.).

РЕЙДЕРСТВО В УКРАЇНІ: СУТНІСТЬ ТА СОЦІАЛЬНА ОБУМОВЛЕНІСТЬ

As a complex illegal phenomenon, "raiding" is associated with a number of real threats to economic security, including the growth of corruption and unemployment, monopolization of certain market segments, loss of competitiveness, reduced production, discredit of state and local authorities, law enforcement agencies and courts. , deterioration of the investment climate, reduction of the level of tax revenues, deformation of the legal ideology of society, etc. The processes of mergers, acquisitions, and other changes in the legal status of economic entities are traditionally regulated by the norms of civil and commercial legislation of Ukraine. In a civilized market economy, the periodic change of owners of commercial organizations is normal,a common mechanism for regulating relations between market participants. At the same time, in the economic realities of modern Ukraine, the line between, on the one hand, the improper implementation of its rights and obligations by the business entity, and, on the other hand, the commission of criminally punishable acts is blurred. After all, these are mostly not primitive ways of obtaining someone else's property (such as the physical removal of the head of the enterprise) - they have been replaced mainly by nonviolent illegal actions related to artificial bankruptcy of legal entities, seizure of their property through forgery, fictitious notarial services. and illegal registration actions, court decisions, etc. The outlined negative processes have led to the emergence in scientific and business circulation, in particular, such concepts as "raiding", "seizure of enterprises", "corporate blackmail", "corporate war", the normative definition of which is missing. According to its legal content and inherent features of this phenomenon, illegal seizure of business entities means socially dangerous behavior, which consists in carefully prepared, organized and externally properly executed seizure of the business entity. There is an obvious need to move from fragmentary research to a comprehensive scientific understanding of the problematic issues of criminal liability for criminal acts, which are manifestations of this phenomenon and the public danger of which is mostly determined by encroachment not on property but on the established procedure. Еconomic activity by its separate subjects. In addition, in-depth research is needed on the special "anti-raider" criminal law prohibitions introduced in recent years, the wording of which is cumbersome, overloaded with blanket features and lacks the certainty required in terms of ensuring the unity of law enforcement.

Principles of decriminalization of criminal law prohibitions

The article deals with the principles of decriminalization of measures of criminal law influence based on a comprehensive system analysis. It is noted that the main direction of criminal law policy is the decriminalization of acts that determine the object of such policy influence. The principle of sufficient social danger implies that the act causes significant harm to the public interest. The principle of the possibility of a positive impact of non-criminal law prohibitions on human behavior involves settling the issue of effective counteraction to the act. The principle of the relative prevalence of acts to be decriminalized emphasizes the need to take into account their individual nature when establishing legal liability for acts. The principle of the predominance of positive consequences in decrim-inalization is especially relevant for economic activity. The principle of timeliness of decriminalization means its implementation at the time of its occurrence, when the act does not pose a social danger, which implies the harmfulness of belated decriminalization.The essence of decriminalization is expressed in the legislation through the principles of law – thus ensuring the formation of the legal law, which means an officially recognized, binding legal act, which is based on the principles of law as rules applicable to the regulation of specific social relations. Decriminalization should be carried out in accordance with systemic principles. If necessary, this is supplemented by the construction of optimal models. This approach to the problem is due to the need to create an appropriate law-making mechanism that would avoid mistakes in reforming criminal law. The principles of decriminalization form a complex system, where one principle is based on the content of another. The fundamental principle of decriminalization is the principle of the rule of human rights and freedoms, which is concretized in general principles as the presumption of innocence, justice.

Establishing the administrative and criminal responsibility during the high alert period

The subject of research is norms of the current administrative and criminal legislation of the Russian Federation applied for violations of anti-epidemic restrictions. In 2020 the array of normative acts applicable in an emergency situation was significantly supplemented and need to be analyzed.The purpose of the study is to confirm or disprove hypothesis that legal certainty norms applied for violations of anti-epidemic restrictions and their position in the hierarchy of administrative-legal and criminal-legal prohibitions look rather dubious.The methodology. The authors choose the hypothetical-deductive method as the main method of this research. This method allowed to create a system of deductively related hypotheses from which statements about empirical facts are derived. The article analyzes the law enforcement practice that developed during the period of high alert.The main results of research and a field of their application. Their relationship between antiepidemic restrictions and permissible restrictions on fundamental human rights and freedoms is considered; an assessment of the proportionality of sanctions for violation of the generally binding rules of conduct is given; the socio-legal conditionality of the repressive legal support for the action of the high alert regime is analyzed. The main trends in law enforcement practice that have developed during the implementation of new administrative and legal and criminal law prohibitions are given. The findings can be useful to optimize law enforcement in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.Conclusions. The legitimization of the pandemic alert regime (or high alert regime in other words) took place in a short period of time, as a result of which some defects of legal regulation can be named. So, to date, no clear gradation has been made between the high alert regime and the emergency regime; although the high alert regime has structurally taken shape as a legal concept in conjunction with ensuring the sanitary and epidemiological wellbeing of the population, its systemic relationship with the categories "quarantine", "prevention of the spread of diseases", "isolation" has not been developed, i.e. with concepts developed in such an area of scientific knowledge as epidemiology, and received partial consolidation in the norms of sanitary and epidemiological legislation. The high alert regime has undergone a significant transformation, turning from a set of recommendations addressed to the subjects of the unified state system for the prevention and elimination of emergencies into a wide list of legal provisions of various legal force, the effect of which applies to all groups of the population. In this regard, it is obvious that there is a demand in society for the unification of accepted norms and further structuring of a clear and unambiguous system of rules of conduct applicable in extreme situations that are not of an emergency nature, but require special control and special public attention. It follows from this that extraordinary legal regulation must acquire a consistent form and receive a strictly defined place in the national legal system.

Verification of Reports on Prison-Related Crimes in the Context of Ensuring the Rights and Legitimate Interests of Convicts

Introduction: the article considers problematic issues related to the participation of penal system officials in procedural activities to verify reports of crimes committed by convicted persons, accused persons, and suspects in correctional institutions, and puts forward proposals aimed at improving the effectiveness of these activities. Our arguments are directly related to the following: determining the moment from which the calculation of the terms of such an inspection should begin, assessing the expediency of such an inspection, actual content of the procedural actions it contains and participation of the defender in them. We come to the conclusion that penal system officials are not sufficiently motivated to use the procedural powers of the body of inquiry and participate in pre-trial proceedings in criminal cases. Moreover, they are often poorly prepared to participate in criminal procedural activities; this fact not only entails violations of the rights and legitimate interests of convicts, but also allows the latter to avoid criminal liability for new crimes committed on the territory of a correctional institution. The fact that many heads of penitentiary institutions are afraid that the number of criminally punishable actions in the territories under their control would increase also has a negative impact on the quality of procedural activity. As a result, the official criminal statistics mainly show only those prison-related offences, which cannot be hushed up. Methods: we make the following classification of the problems of responding to various violations of criminal law prohibitions by persons sentenced to imprisonment, as well as suspects and accused persons held in custody: 1) problems related to the reasons for initiating a criminal case; 2) problems related to the reasons for initiating a criminal case; 3) problems related to checking the reports of prison-related offences; 4) problems related to the adoption of final procedural decisions and the provision of qualified legal assistance to convicted persons in the implementation of verification actions. Taking into account the specifics of the problems, we put forward the ways to overcome and solve these problems. Discussion: the latency of prison offences has been and remains quite high, and the procedural activity itself carried out in connection with their commission is very far from ideal. In such conditions, there is a growing need for timely and professional response on the part of officials of correctional institutions (including pre-trial detention centers) to various violations of criminal law prohibitions committed by persons sentenced to imprisonment, as well as suspects and accused persons held in custody. Results: we prove that the above-mentioned response is mandatory and has a number of specific features, primarily due to the environment in which it is carried out.

Abortion rights beyond the medico-legal paradigm

ABSTRACT Abortion rights in international law have historically been framed within a medico-legal paradigm, the belief that regulated systems of legal and medical control guarantee safe abortion. However, a growing worldwide practice of self-managed abortion (SMA) supported by feminist activism challenges key precepts of this paradigm. SMA activism has shown that more than medical service delivery matters to safe abortion and has called into question the legal regulation of abortion beyond criminal prohibitions. This article explores how abortion rights have begun to depart from the medico-legal paradigm and to support the novel norms and practices of SMA activism in a transformation of the abortion field. Abortion rights as reimagined in SMA activism increasingly feature in human rights agendas related to structural violence and inequality, collective organising and international solidarity, and democratic engagement.

THE OFFENCE OF BEING FOUND IN DISGUISE IN SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES

The statutory criminal prohibition on the use of disguises in suspicious circumstances has a venerable history in South African law. A form of this offence can be found in the pre-Union legislation (as well as in s 9(2) of Proclamation 27 of 1920 and s 3(2) of Proclamation 5 of 1937 of the former South West Africa). It is noteworthy that there are very few reported cases dealing with the various forms of this offence. Nevertheless it is evident that the offence serves an important function. In its review of various statutes relating to justice, the South African Law Reform Commission comments, in respect of the current formulation of this offence found in section 1 of the Prohibition of Disguises Act (16 of 1969), that “it enables police officers to approach persons in suspicious circumstances, which could prevent crime occurring, for example, masked persons outside a bank”, and consequently it is recommended by the SALRC that the offence should therefore be retained.

Means of ensuring the understandability of criminal legal norms under the authentic national legislation of the X-XVIII centuries

In the article the normative acts that contained criminal law norms and operated on the territory of modern Ukraine were analyzed, which made it possible to trace the development of legal techniques and identify the directions used by the compilers for a clear statement of criminal law norms. It is established that at the first stages of formation of legal technique commitment for intelligibility was reflected only in the proximity of the language of acts (primarily vocabulary) to the living vernacular. It was gradually realized that not only the improvement of terminology, but also the specifics of syntax, standardization of individual articles of criminal law, clear structure and sequence of material both within articles and in general are necessary for intelligibility of the criminal law.
 An analysis of the texts of Russkaya Pravda (various editions), three Lithuanian Statutes, "Rights under which the Little Russian people are tried" showed that during the existence and validity of these acts there was a process of forming an authentic national tradition of lawmaking, legal technique of criminal law was improving. These acts, compared to the then European ones which were difficult to perceive and understand, were easily applied and generally understandable to a wide range of subjects of criminal law. For this purpose, linguistic and stylistic means were used and subsequently improved: in the conditions of diglossia the language of normative acts was brought closer to the vernacular with the obligatory use of clear, according to their origin, legal tokens; an attempt to describe accurately the action through a casuistic statement and at the same time an awareness of the need for an abstract statement (so far only by supplementing the lists with generalizing words); uniformity of construction of criminal law prohibitions; more logical systematization of normative material, structuring both acts as a whole and certain criminal law provisions. At the same time the desire for accuracy and clarity gradually leveled such a requirement as conciseness.

UNIVERSALIZATION OF LAW AND UNIFICATION OF UKRAINIAN CRIMINAL LEGISLATION

In the context of social processes globalization, the guidelines for the legal systems development, in particular, criminal law system, are transformed from the processes of unlimited differentiation and domestic "legal isolationism" to the trend of unification and universalization of law. The concept of reforming Ukraine criminal legislation should be focused on the new criminal legislation, which should be built on a single basis, using modern advances in legislation. This will make it possible to harmonize terminology. The appropriate approach determines the vector of the state criminal law policy, which is aimed at unification of criminal law, but doesn’t exclude the expediency of reasonable differentiation. The purpose of the article: to find out the meaning and impact of the law universalization and criminal law unification, to determine the processes of its implementation in criminal law, taking into account the analysis of the draft Criminal Code provisions. In article, the universalization of law is defined as a manifestation of legal globalization, which leads to recognition of basic legal values, universalization of legal language, legal norms and creation of universal legal means and instruments. In the criminal law doctrine the unification of criminal law is seen as a process that provides a single legal regulation of similar or overlapping social relations in relation to a criminal act. Unification is carried out by the legislator during the process of creating or improving criminal law and structural elements of criminal law. Unification of criminal law is a desirable process, as it is necessary to clearly define the content of criminal law prohibitions and boundaries of criminal law regulation; to exclude cases of misinterpretation of the same concept. Based on certain processes of universalization and unification, the impact of the processes on the content of criminal law is indicated. The implementation of substantive criminal law has the ultimate goal, which is lies in restoring of social justice. This is reflected in determination of proportionate punishment or other measures of criminal law regulation. In this regard, we believe that the effectiveness of criminal law regulation is achieved by providing a consistency of criminal law regulations and acts of criminal law application in unified body of law enforcement practice. Current trends of legal system in the context of public relations globalization and the need to overcome conflicts, reform of criminal law and the judiciary of Ukraine give a reason to believe that the universalization and unification of criminal law is justified priority in the lawmaking process.

DISTINCTION OF MINIMIZATION (OPTIMIZATION) OF TAXES FROM PREDICATE CRIMINAL OFFENCES IN THE TAXATION SYSTEM OF UKRAINE

The article argues the expediency of considering the issue of distinguishing lawful conduct from predicate criminal offenses of evasion of legal obligations in the taxation system of Ukraine, which are committed in the framework of lawful economic activity. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the state’s economy can be negatively affected by acts committed in a manner not prohibited by law and are determined through the category of “minimization (optimization) of taxes”. It is argued that evasion and optimization on the basis of conscious and purposeful action coincide with the goal – to reduce the tax liability, and at the same time when evading a person consciously finds a way to achieve the goal for which there is a direct rule of criminal prohibition and wants socially dangerous consequences. Scientific provisions on the subjective side of a person’s behavior in reducing the tax burden by selected groups of methods and techniques of tax planning are revealed. There is emphasized the author`s approach for distinguishing features of underlined previously groups and methods by the subjective side of activity. The purpose of the study is to develop an author’s scientific approach to the separation of minimization (optimization) of taxes from predicate criminal offenses in the taxation system of Ukraine. It is concluded that when comparing groups of methods and ways to reduce the payment of tax liabilities should be borne in mind that it is the intent embodies the awareness of the actual nature of actions and awareness of their social significance, i.e. the degree of harmful effects on public relations. According to the intellectual component of intent in the commission of illegal acts, awareness of the public danger of the perpetrator occurs indirectly through the understanding of the public danger of acts of non-performance or improper performance of their legal duty. According to the volitional component of intent, its subject is not only socially dangerous actions, but also the corresponding negative consequences caused by them. The expression of will to use legal and illegal methods and means to achieve the goal of reducing the tax burden are purposeful, but different in nature. When qualifying actions aimed at reducing the tax burden should be borne in mind that certain expressions of will are causally related to mental processes occurring in her mind, and therefore the separation of minimization (optimization) of taxes from predicate criminal offenses in the taxation system of Ukraine a sign of the subjective side.

The Right to Assisted Dying: Constitutional Jurisprudence and Its Impact in Canada, Germany and Austria

Abstract Many states are grappling with the regulation of assistance in suicide and ending the life of another upon their request. Initially punishable in most countries, a growing number of jurisdictions have now introduced permissive frameworks decriminalising, to varying degrees, rendering assistance in dying. Other countries, however, have proceeded with the criminal prohibition and several courts have upheld the lawfulness of the respective criminal laws during human rights and constitutional challenges. Yet, the Supreme Court of Canada in 2015, the German Federal Constitutional Court in February 2020 and the Austrian Constitutional Court in December 2020 have respectively declared unconstitutional and void national criminal laws prohibiting rendering assistance in dying. This article first outlines the criminal law framework relating to assisted dying in Canada, Germany and Austria. It subsequently analyses the judgments before pondering their impact on the legal landscape in the three countries. The article concludes that while the Canadian Supreme Court decision appears to have had a significant impact on the introduction of subsequent legislation in Canada, the effects of the Constitutional Courts’ judgments seem much more subdued in Germany and are yet to unfold in Austria.

Crimes against peace and security of mankind (Chapter 34 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation): some problems of differentiating responsibility

This article examines the problems of constructing norms on crimes against the peace and security of mankind (Chapter 34 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), analyzes the controversial issues of regulating of the qualified behavior of the subjects of these attacks. It is obvious that in Russia the regulatory, including criminal law, instruments for countering crimes against the peace and security of mankind have not yet been finally formed and have not been properly tested in practice, the designs of the compositions do not always correspond to the needs of law enforcement practice and criminological foundations. The author focuses on the study of the gaps in the implementation of the normative differentiation of responsibility, the study of the features of consolidation of qualifying features in the articles of Chapter 34 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The article notes that the saturation of the qualifying signs of the investigated criminal law prohibitions is insufficient. Currently, only five articles (Articles 354, 354.1, 359, 360, 361) of this chapter contain qualified compositions. Obviously, during the formation of the investigated criminal law prohibitions in the mid-90s of the last century, the legislator did not pay due attention to their saturation with the necessary differentiating circumstances, taking into account the criminological content and the level of social danger of one or another illegal behavior that harms the peace and security of mankind. The article proposes a number of normative decisions to consolidate a number of qualifying circumstances in the norms of Chapter 34 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the content of the nature and level of social danger of individual encroachments is analyzed, the consideration of these circumstances in the construction of qualified corpus delicti is substantiated.

Discussion aspects of determining the list of means and techniques of legislative technique in the law-making process

The article examines the means and techniques of legislative technique as the main primary components of the construction of legal norms, the authors explore the controversial aspects of determining the range of key technical and legal instruments. The authors note the negative aspects in the process of using the tools and techniques of legislative technique in the regulation of criminal law prohibitions. The main technical and legal problems in modern criminal law-making are the unjustified casuistification of dispositions of normative prescriptions, the bulkiness of criminal law prohibitions. In some cases, the volume (capacity) of individual dispositions exceeds 150 words. Such normative decisions significantly complicate the perception of elements of a crime, complicate the assessment and comparison of the committed act with a specific criminal norm. These circumstances negatively affect the qualification process and do not meet the needs of law enforcement practice. Certain gaps are observed in the construction of blank dispositions, in a situation where the legislator uses significant prescriptions borrowed from normative acts of other branches of law in the description of encroachments. The paper also notes, that the rules of legislative technique do not relate to basic structural elements, since they are auxiliary (secondary) components of the legislative process and are already associated with the use of tools and techniques in the course of practical normative design, formation of specific legal prescriptions.

Wartime Sexual Acts as Prosecutable War Crimes

Human history is littered with the mass rape of women particularly as a military strategy in warfare, dating back centuries from ancient Greek, Roman, and Hebrew concubines through the Middle Ages to the 20th century ‘comfort women’ of the 2nd World War. Ancient literature explicitly refers to rape or the seizure of vanquished women, who were regarded as the enemy’s property, to become wives, servants slaves, or concubines. The plight of women worsened in the twentieth century when civilian women suffered the most consequences of armed conflicts including rape. Rape served as an oppressive and humiliating tool to severe family identity to dominate, demoralize, and destroy the entire enemy society and way of life. In the past, there appeared to be no international law that specifically dealt with rape in armed conflicts. This was caused by the ambivalent relationship between the law of armed conflict and gender-based crimes. Rape was overlooked as an unfortunate yet inevitable by-product of war. Both international humanitarian and human rights laws did not initially recognize rape as a serious war crime and a fundamental breach of human rights. This deafening legal silence and gap are being addressed through an ongoing evolutionary process by criminalizing wartime predatory sexual acts as a war crime, crimes against humanity, and even genocide. However, with the developments of international law and its practice, for the first time in the history, mass rape and sexual enslavement in the time of war be regarded as ‘crimes against humanity’ in a landmark ruling from the Yugoslav War crime tribunal in the Hague on 22 February 2001. But, even before that, some prior legal instruments for example the Lieber Code, promulgated during the American Civil War regarded [wartime] rape as war crime with capital punishment. Thus, this paper aims to analyze how the historical legal instruments have articulated the extend of criminality and culpability of wartime rapes and other sexual violence and their nexus with crimes of humanity, genocide, and war crimes within the corpus of international norms and criminal prohibitions as well as the historical development of wartime sexual acts as prosecutable war crimes.

К вопросу о социально-правовой обусловленности уголовно-правового противодействия преступлениям, совершаемым с использованием электронных технологий, в России и Китае

Purpose. This research is aimed at identifying the reasons for the social and legal conditionality of establishing criminal bans committed using electronic technologies in Russia and China. Based on this, it is reasonable to study the socio-legal conditionality of establishing criminal liability in the field of electronic technologies, since in the absence of a system of knowledge about public relations protected by criminal law, as well as the environment in which the relevant normative decision was made, it is impossible to fully analyze its content and potential effectiveness. Methodology: general scientific and private scientific methods of cognition: analysis, synthesis, formal logical, formal legal, comparative legal. Conclusions. The need for criminal law protection of the sphere of high-tech circulation from criminal attacks is due to its influence on the existing structure of public relations and the emergence of new threats to the state, public and personal security of citizens. The public danger of crimes committed with the use of electronic technologies has qualitative differences from the negative impact on public relations arising from the use of historically established methods of illegal behavior. Crimes committed with the use of electronic technologies have received a criminal-legal characterization in the legislation of Russia and China insofar as there are new threats to public relations arising from the circulation of computer information and its use for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Scientific and practical significance. The significance of the research is that for the first time a comparative legal analysis of the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China is conducted in terms of establishing responsibility for crimes committed using electronic technologies. The practical significance of the research lies in the legislative activity of the two countries, by improving the processes of unification and differentiation of criminal law prohibitions related to the use of electronic technologies.

עקרון החוקיות: חזק על חלשים <br>The Principle of Legality: A Paper Principle

תקציר בעברית: המאמר עוסק בספרו החדש של בועז סנג'רו, ביקורת דיני העונשין הישראליים (2020). לאחר תיאור חשיבותו של הספר ותרומתו, המאמר מתמקד בעקרון החוקיות, אחד העקרונות המפורסמים ביותר בדיני העונשין. סנג'רו מתייחס לדרישותיו השונות של העיקרון: הדרישה שאיסורים יהיו רק בחוק או מכוחו, הדרישה לפומביות החוק, הדרישה שהחוק הפלילי יחול מכאן ואילך, הדרישה להגדרה ברורה ומפורטת של האיסור, והדרישה לפרשנות מצמצמת. המאמר דן בכל אחת מהדרישות באופן מפורט וביקורתי, תוך הרחבה על שתי הדרישות האחרונות, שלעתים קרובות אינן מתקיימות במשפט הישראלי. המאמר יסקור איסורים מרכזיים שרחוקים מלהיות בהירים, ופסיקה עליונה בולטת שרחוקה מפרשנות מצמצמת. המאמר מציע שהמשפט הפלילי הישראלי נאמן לעקרון החוקיות כמעט רק במקרים שבהם נאמנות כזו אינה כרוכה בפגיעה באינטרס הציבורי, וקורא לרפורמה מקפת בחלק הספציפי של חוק העונשין. English Abstract: This article revolves around Boaz Sangero's latest book, Critique of the Israeli Criminal Law (2020). After describing the book's importance and contribution, this article focuses on the famous principle of legality in the substantive criminal law. Sangero addresses the various requirements of the principle: the requirement that prohibitions will be set only by the legislator, the requirement that all laws are made public, the requirement that new laws apply prospectively, the requirement that prohibitions are elaborate and clear, and the requirement for narrow interpretation of criminal prohibitions. This article discusses each requirement critically, elaborating on the last two, which are often denied by the criminal law in Israel. It illustrates diverse central prohibitions, which are far from clear, alongside famous verdicts by the Israeli Supreme Court, which are far from narrow interpretation. This article suggests that the Israeli criminal law is faithful to the principle of legality only in cases in which such faithfulness does not come at the expense of the public interest in conviction.

ON THE ISSUE OF THE BLANKET METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING CRIMINAL LAW PROHIBITIONS (BASED ON PROVISIONS OF SECTION VII OF THE SPECIAL PART OF THE CRIMINAL CODE OF UKRAINE)

The article examines the blanket method for describing dispositions of criminal law prohibitions, in particular, the norms of Section VII of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It has been established that when using blanket dispositions, the content of a criminal act is determined both by the law on criminal liability and by the norms of other branches of law; at the same time, such dispositions do not replace criminal law provisions, while performing in such cases auxiliary, clarifying function. It is determined that the blanket way of describing economic articles of criminal legislation is due to the special meaning of a criminal prohibition, which protects the economy as a regulator of relations by non-criminal legal acts. In the norms of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on economic crimes considered in the article, the domestic legislator pragmatically concretized the semantic links between the norm of the criminal and special regulatory law, which should be taken positively. It was established that in this way, firstly, the limits of the volume of unlawful behavior are clearly established, beyond which the representatives of law enforcement practice are strictly prohibited from going out during the criminal-legal assessment of the deed. At the same time, here, to a certain extent, the work of the law enforcement officer is facilitated, since normative acts of a non-criminal direction have been concretized, which should be relied upon in the investigation and further judicial proceedings. Secondly, such a normatively specific approach to the construction of criminal law prohibitions obviously contributes to the unification and simplification of approaches to socially dangerous acts in the economic sphere. It shows that the state does not need numerous laws and regulations, which are textually, chronologically and legally distorted. It has been established defined that the reform of the object and system of norms on crimes against the order of economic activity should have as its main task the careful development of specific criminal law norms in order to create the cross-sectoral mechanism of legal regulation. Key words: blanket disposition, economic crime, legal act, disposition, regulatory law.