SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIMINAL LEGAL STANDARDS PROVIDING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MURDER OF A CHILD: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

The purpose is to study the criminal codes of individual countries of the world, in particular the norms that provide responsibility for taking the life of children. Research methods. Comparative-legal, formal-logical, deductive, logical, prognostic. Research results. There is a characteristic of legal norms that provide for the responsibility associated with the murder of the mother of her newborn child and deprivation of human life. The conducted analysis showed that the relation to human life is one of the state’s priorities, but the approaches to standardizing its protection are quite different. As shown by the comparative analysis of legislation and the history of the development of law-making processes in individual states, even the conceptual apparatus differs. This is how we meet norms with the name: “Murder by the mother of a newborn child” (Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia), “Infanticide” (Albania, Korea), “Murder of a child during childbirth” (Austria), “Murder of a child” ( Estonia), “Paricide” (Philippines). Based on the definition of the name of the norm itself and their disposition are also defined differently. This is explained by the fact that infanticide in every country of the world went through complex stages, and, most importantly, this process has not ended. It is significant that in some norms we are not talking about a newborn child, and therefore we meet the responsibility for killing both an unborn child and an already born child (including a newborn), which are equated with the term infanticide, and it differs significantly with the time of the commission of this crime and by the object of criminal encroachment, namely his age. In some countries, there is a direct norm for determining “newborn human” (Canada). The responsibility for these actions also differs, as does the age of the person from whom responsibility begins. Based on the analysis of the criminal legislation of foreign countries, we observe ambiguity in determining the form of guilt specifically for the murder of a newborn child. The author comes to the conclusion that the murder of a newborn child in different countries of the world is not defined unambiguously and depends primarily on the definition of the type of murder of an unborn, newborn child, the presence in the criminal legislation of privileged components of the crime of murder by the mother of her child or their absence. In addition, there are cases of bringing the father to criminal responsibility for some actions related to the new birth. It is not the content of the concept of “human life” but the question of its beginning that should be taken into account as the basis of the elements of the crime involving responsibility for infanticide.