TOPICALITY OF CERTAIN NORMS OF INTERNATIONAL AND CRIMINAL LAW IN WAR CONDITIONS

Abstract

Goal. Update certain norms of international and criminal law governing public relations during martial law and peacetime. Methods. The research used a system of general scientific methods, system analysis, comparative legal, theoretical generalization, formalization and forecasting. The results. The article is devoted to the current problems of the modern definition and demarcation of the concepts between the war that is taking place today on the territory of the sovereign state of Ukraine and the so-called aggressor country ‘special military operation’ with reference to private international law. A comparative study of the norms of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and their compliance with the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War: the United Nations Convention of August 12, 1949 and the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations Convention of October 10, 1980, the Council of Europe Convention of November 4, 1950, the United Nations Charter of July 17, 1998, the Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and the Statute of the International Military Tribunal, the Statute of the Nuremberg Tribunal. The relevance of the research is confirmed by the need to carry out a comparative legal analysis of the norms of international law and similar norms criminalized in Ukraine regarding crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity, which will allow crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine to be brought under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, regardless of whether these were actions in violation of the domestic law of the country, and where they were committed. The analysis showed that the norms in the criminal legislation of Ukraine fully reflect unity in approaches to the assessment of violations of the laws and customs of war, crimes against humanity, namely murder, brutal treatment of civilians, violations of international treaties, etc. The dispositions of Art. Art. 433, 434 and 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which describe acts prohibited by international legal documents in the form of violence against prisoners of war and the civilian population in conditions of armed conflict. It has been established that the issue of law enforcement practice of these norms is related to the legislative construction that creates problems in the qualification of these offenses where the difference lies in who is the subject of these offenses. Conclusions. The concept of war and its difference from a special military operation is detailed. A distinction is made between the concepts of war crimes and military offenses, and offenses of an international nature are distinguished among them. The authors present the world-recognized classification of crimes committed during the war and detail it. The concept of ‘combatant’ and its meaning in law enforcement practice are defined. The dependence of criminal liability on the subjects of the offense is outlined.