| (2019) 4 Visn. Nac. akad. prokur. Ukr. 72–85 | |
| https://doi.org/10.34285/visnyknapu2019.04.072 | |
| Title of the article | Uncertainty of the Text of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: “Execution Can Not Be Pardoned” |
| Author(s) | ZOIA ZAHYNEI-ZABOLOTENKO Doctor of Laws, Associate Professor, department of initial and continuous training in the sphere of corruption counteraction, Institute of Continuing Training of Prosecutors, National Prosecution Academy of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, trostuk@ukr.net |
| Short title of the journal (ISSN) |
Visn. Nac. akad. prokur. Ukr. |
| Year | 2019 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | [72–85] |
| Language | Ukrainian |
| Abstract | Determination of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is an important requirement, given the high dynamics of amendments to this Code, which are mostly chaotic, non-systemic in nature, which causes inflation of the criminal law of Ukraine. The purpose of the article – to establish the correlation of indeterminate and definite formulations in the text of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and to justify which of these formulations it is expedient to use in it. In order to achieve this goal, the following tasks are considered necessary: 1) to characterize the problem of legal certainty taking into account the scientific approaches of scientists and practices of the ECtHR; 2) identify elements of indeterminate content in the text of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; 3) to distinguish objective and subjective reasons for the presence of vague wording in the text of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; 4) explore the possibility of using indeterminate content in the text of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It is concluded that it is advisable to speak about optimization of uncertainty when determining the relation between the uncertain and the defined in the text of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Such a qualitative characteristic of the criminal law norms as the degree of their certainty is distinguished. Indefinite content includes evaluative concepts, open lists, discretionary powers of state bodies in criminal-law relations, latency of the text of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, legal fictions, legal presumptions; it has been investigated that formal provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, such as casuistical lists, can give rise to uncertainty. The legal position of the Supreme Court for overcoming the ambiguity of the text of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is indicated. Some criteria of attribution of legal problems to exceptional ones have been singled out: ambiguous approach to solving the relevant question in court practice, lack of established case law of solving issues that are an exclusive legal problem, ambiguity of normative regulation of relevant issues in the Criminal Code of Ukraine and other normative legal acts. send blank dispositions of articles, the availability of different scientific approaches in the criminal law doctrine to resolve a particular controversial issue, etc. |
| Keywords | uncertainty; indeterminate content; certainty; text of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; interpretation; implementation of legal norms; exceptional legal problem. |
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