CURRENT ISSUES OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CRIMINAL LAW PROTECTION OF THE BASICS OF NATIONAL SECURITY OF UKRAINE

Abstract

The article explores problematic issues in terms of improving the criminal law protection of the foundations of Ukraine’s national security in the context of increased threats to the constitutional order, sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability (taking into account the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine). It is stated that there is an urgent objective need for emergency opposition on the part of the state to such anti-state manifestations. Consequently, for the effective resolution of such problems, the state has a natural burden to develop a set of measures and means aimed at localizing such crime. Since the effectiveness and efficiency of criminal policy in this sphere are determined not so much by the choice of one or another vector of conceptual development, but by the level of content quality and the degree of productivity of the implementation of the normative prescriptions of the current criminal legislation, which, taking into account the existing threats and the political situation in Ukraine, needs a radical change. It is argued that currently it seems obvious that the current system of criminal law protection of the foundations of national security needs to be rethought, and, accordingly, in some modification, which would allow to adequately counter existing and potential threats in this important sphere of the life of the nation. It is emphasized that the necessary principles and criteria have not yet been developed to clearly define the limits of the range of socially dangerous encroachments that fully damage or may damage the foundations of Ukraine’s national security, which explains their active spread with impunity. It is stated that the definition of a clear, and possibly exhaustive range of crimes that encroach on the relevant object, is strictly dependent on the ability to determine the essential characteristics and nature of such an object. Accordingly, the definition of a range of specific socially dangerous encroachments on the foundations of the national security of Ukraine is explained by the natural need of criminal law science and practice. It is argued that the regulations providing for criminal liability for the commission of the crimes in question should be norms containing signs of only those acts that really pose a corresponding threat to the foundations of the national security of Ukraine. They can be both completely “new” criminal law prescriptions, and, to some extent, updated, but still valid legislative norms of Сhapter I of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.