MARTIAL LAW IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS OF CRIMINAL REGULATION AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the analysis of criminal norms enforcement problems during martial law in Ukraine according to the legislative criminal law changes. It is noted that war and armed conflict significantly change the usual order of life in peacetime, and often create other types of society relations. Their forehanded legal regulation is determined by the priority of strengthening the state’s defense capabilities, maintaining the economic system and ensuring the operation of enterprises, restoring destroyed infrastructure, protecting civilians, minimizing the catastrophic consequences of war. The nature and increased public danger of acts committed under martial law require additional criminal law regulation. Criminal offenses committed during the war encroach on various objects of criminal law protection, first of all, statehood, national security, territory’s integrity. Attention is also paid to the possible risks of imperfect and ineffective criminal law implementation due to the legislative changes intensification of Criminal Code of Ukraine,. Among other things, it is emphasized that the effectiveness of criminal law largely depends on the pureness of legal criminal terminology. Linguistic innovations, which the legislator uses in thesaurus of criminal law, often complicate the practice of law enforcement, create artificial competition, and often conflicts within criminal law. On specific examples, the author substantiates the need to follow the principles of legal certainty and legality of criminal law. In conclusion, the author notes that due to the objective conditions, the dynamics of criminal law improvement should not turn into an uncontrolled process that can lead to distortion of the true criminal law content. Therefore, under the current conditions, criminal law making should not only strive for innovation, but also to preserve the stability of established criminal law traditions.