Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Publicación cientíca en formato digital
ISSN-Versión Impresa 0798-1406 / ISSN-Versión on line 2542-3185
Depósito legal pp 197402ZU34
ppi 201502ZU4645
Vol.40 N° 74
2022
ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas
La re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas, es una pu bli ca cn aus pi cia da por el Ins ti tu to
de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che” (IEPDP) de la Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po ti cas de la Uni ver si dad del Zu lia.
En tre sus ob je ti vos fi gu ran: con tri buir con el pro gre so cien tí fi co de las Cien cias
Hu ma nas y So cia les, a tra vés de la di vul ga ción de los re sul ta dos lo gra dos por sus in ves-
ti ga do res; es ti mu lar la in ves ti ga ción en es tas áreas del sa ber; y pro pi ciar la pre sen ta-
ción, dis cu sión y con fron ta ción de las ideas y avan ces cien tí fi cos con com pro mi so so cial.
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas apa re ce dos ve ces al o y pu bli ca tra ba jos ori gi na les con
avan ces o re sul ta dos de in ves ti ga ción en las áreas de Cien cia Po lí ti ca y De re cho Pú bli-
co, los cua les son so me ti dos a la con si de ra ción de ár bi tros ca li fi ca dos.
ESTA PU BLI CA CIÓN APA RE CE RE SE ÑA DA, EN TRE OTROS ÍN DI CES, EN
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Re vicyhLUZ, In ter na tio nal Po li ti cal Scien ce Abs tracts, Re vis ta In ter ame ri ca na de
Bi blio gra fía, en el Cen tro La ti no ame ri ca no para el De sa rrol lo (CLAD), en Bi blio-
gra fía So cio Eco nó mi ca de Ve ne zue la de RE DIN SE, In ter na tio nal Bi blio graphy of
Po li ti cal Scien ce, Re vencyt, His pa nic Ame ri can Pe rio di cals In dex/HAPI), Ul ri chs
Pe rio di cals Di rec tory, EBS CO. Se en cuen tra acre di ta da al Re gis tro de Pu bli ca cio-
nes Cien tí fi cas y Tec no ló gi cas Ve ne zo la nas del FO NA CIT, La tin dex.
Di rec to ra
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OIRALITH
M. C
HIRINOS
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Co mi Edi tor
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Ma ría Eu ge nia Soto Hernández
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Co mi Ase sor
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J. M. Del ga do Ocan do
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An gel Lom bar di
Die ter Nohlen
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Asis ten tes Ad mi nis tra ti vos
Joan López Urdaneta y Nil da Ma n
Re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas. Av. Gua ji ra. Uni ver si dad del Zu lia. Nú cleo Hu ma nís ti co. Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas. Ins ti tu to de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co
Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che. Ma ra cai bo, Ve ne zue la. E- mail: cues tio nes po li ti cas@gmail.
com ~ loi chi ri nos por til lo@gmail.com. Te le fax: 58- 0261- 4127018.
Vol. 40, Nº 74 (2022), 895-908
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Recibido el 11/06/22 Aceptado el 18/09/22
On the Principles of Sanctions
of Criminal Law Norms in the Context
of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine:
Clarication of Denitions
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4074.50
Roman Maksymovych *
Oksana Gorpyniuk **
Iryna Serkevych ***
Mykhailo Akimov ****
Petro Korniienko *****
Abstract
The aim of the work was to determine the peculiarities of the
principles of formation of sanctions of criminal law norms in
the conditions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The method
of analysis and research was used to interpret the works of legal
scientists and determine the main theoretical approaches to the application
of sanctions in international law on the example of Russia’s violation of
international law against Ukraine. For the detailed study of the subject the
method of analysis and synthesis and descriptive method was used, as well
as the method of generalization to determine the results of the research.
The scientic novelty consists in the fact that the study claries the concept
of sanctioning of criminal law norms as one of the original factors of
international conict resolution. The practical signicance of the study
* Candidate of Law (PhD), Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Law Disciplines, Institute
of Law, Lviv State University of Internal Aairs Lviv State University of Internal Aairs, Institute of
Law, Department of Criminal Law Disciplines 79007, Lviv, 26 Horodotska str., Ukraine. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9796-998X
** Candidate of Law (PhD), Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Law Disciplines, Institute
of Law, Lviv State University of Internal Aairs, Lviv State University of Internal Aairs, Institute of
Law, Department of Criminal Law Disciplines 79007, Lviv, 26 Horodotska str., Ukraine. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3110-6564
*** Candidate of Law (PhD), Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Law Disciplines, Institute
of Law, Lviv State University of Internal Aairs Lviv State University of Internal Aairs, Institute of
Law, Department of Criminal Law Disciplines 79007, Lviv, 26 Horodotska str. ORCID ID: https://
orcid.org/0000-0001-7678-0291
**** Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor Criminal Law Department National Academy of
Internal Aairs, 1, Solomyanska square, Kyiv, 03035, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-
0001-7715-0259
***** Dr. hab in Law, Professorof the Department of Philosophy, Law and Social-Humanitarian Disciplines
Department of Philosophy, Law and Social-Humanitarian Disciplines the Faculty of Finance and
Economics, National Academy of Statistics, Accounting and Audit, Pathirana str. 1, Kyiv, Ukraine,
04107. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1473-6698
896
Roman Maksymovych, Oksana Gorpyniuk, Iryna Serkevych, Mykhailo Akimov y Petro Korniienko
On the Principles of Sanctions of Criminal Law Norms in the Context of the Russian Invasion of
Ukraine: Clarication of Denitions
consists in identifying the action of sanctions in conditions of war by Russia
against Ukraine. It is concluded that, the conducted study is the basis for
specifying the concept of the principles of sanctions in the international
legal sphere, which is also the result of the analysis of legal works.
Keywords: globalization; criminal liability; international conicts;
Russian aggression; Russian-Ukrainian war.
Sobre los Principios de Sanción de las Normas de
Derecho Penal en el Contexto de la Invasión Rusa de
Ucrania: Aclaración de las deniciones
Resumen
El objetivo del trabajo fue determinar las peculiaridades de los
principios de formación de las sanciones de las normas de derecho penal
en las condiciones de la invasión rusa de Ucrania. Se ha utilizado el método
de análisis e investigación para interpretar los trabajos de los cientícos
jurídicos y determinar los principales enfoques teóricos sobre la aplicación
de las sanciones en el derecho internacional a partir del ejemplo de la
violación del derecho internacional por parte de Rusia contra Ucrania. Para
el estudio detallado del tema se utilizó el método de análisis y síntesis y el
método descriptivo, así como el método de generalización para determinar
los resultados de la investigación. La novedad cientíca consiste en que el
estudio aclara el concepto de sanción de las normas de derecho penal como
uno de los factores originales de la resolución de conictos internacionales.
La importancia práctica del estudio consiste en identicar la acción de las
sanciones en condiciones de guerra por parte de Rusia contra Ucrania. Se
concluye que, el estudio realizado es la base para especicar el concepto
de los principios de las sanciones en el ámbito jurídico internacional, que
además es el resultado del análisis de los trabajos jurídicos.
Palabras clave: globalización; responsabilidad penal; conictos
internacionales; agresión rusa; guerra ruso-ucraniana.
Introduction
Innovative society is being formed as postmodern development,
combining the achievements of information technology and aspects
of civilizational development. Various processes encompass social
development and stimulate innovative achievements that could be the
beginning of a new civilizational era (Kay and Goldspink, 2016).
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 895-908
Today’s problems are global, hence the need for close cooperation and
integration. Global processes cover dierent areas of life (Floridi et al., 2018).
Thus, in the face of the challenges of today’s problems, communication
between people is changing, in particular the transformation from the
physical environment to the virtual world. New notions of human presence
in space are being formed, and the concept of interaction, feedback,
authenticity, the experience of existence, and communication is emerging.
That is, in the conditions of the modern world there is a need for a new
interpretation of human activity in social space, established in the context
of rethinking. Man, as part of his thinking, creates the conditions for
improving his worldview and improves his skills in dierent areas to make
life more perfect.
Thus, in the context of creating a “perfect world” in the new worldview,
it is necessary to understand that the highest value is a man and his life.
In the process of acquiring a new experience, man’s idea of his limitless
possibilities is formed, the realization that he “can do anything,” depending
on his thinking and worldview. To determine the essence of the new
way of thinking, one should form a certain idea of the space in which
communication is created as a manifestation of interaction, as a denition
of normative and legal values.
Today’s Ukraine is amid full-blown anger on the part of the Russian
country. The war has no political or economic justication. Ukraine has
begun the process of law reform in the context of European integration, that
is, it has determined the task of bringing the legislation of the Ukrainian
state to European norms.
Therefore, there is a need to streamline the new norms of criminal law
policy. This trend is relevant to the scientic exploration of the legal norms
of confrontation with a crime in the world meaning, so there is a question
of researching the problem of determining the international principles of
sanctions as a factor in the implementation of criminal law regulation in the
process of Russian-Ukrainian war.
The main problem of the research is to determine the appropriate
principle of punishment of criminals, which would prevent further atrocity
and could stop the spread of terror. The sanctions specied in the Criminal
Code (Criminal Code of Ukraine) are the main regulator of the measure
of punishment for the crime, approved by a court decision. Sanctions
determine the degree of responsibility for violating the law.
Assigning the necessary and sucient punishment to the perpetrators
of the crime is the key to achieving the goals set for punishment (Noonan,
2017).
898
Roman Maksymovych, Oksana Gorpyniuk, Iryna Serkevych, Mykhailo Akimov y Petro Korniienko
On the Principles of Sanctions of Criminal Law Norms in the Context of the Russian Invasion of
Ukraine: Clarication of Denitions
Determination of the principle of sanctions in the context of the Russian-
Ukrainian war is especially important because the Russian invasion is an
unlawful, groundless, gratuitous crime against humanity, a violation of
international legal norms and therefore there is a need to determine the
responsibility for such actions both in the context of international law and
the relevant Ukrainian legislation (Koniushenko et al., 2022).
Scientic works highlight the procedure of elimination of deciencies
in the formation of sanctions of the Criminal Code as an important stage in
the formation of criminal legislation in the process of European integration.
The relevance of the research is determined by the need to establish criminal
law sanctions as an important tool to inuence the prevention of the spread
of terrorism in society (Criminal Code Of Ukraine, 2007).
It is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that demonstrates the essence of
sanctions that can actually prevent the spread of criminal activity.
The problems of the formation of normative and legislative norms in
world history have been of interest to the study of many scholars (Lappo et
al., 2022).
Researchers have studied criminal law and the principles of sanctions
as one of the most important factors in inuencing criminal activity. Thus,
Denisova (2004) analyzed sanctions as a factor of punishment for the
perpetrator. So, based on the analysis of theoretical and methodological
approaches, the main aspects of the concept of “sanctions” as a criminal
law aspect of the modern representation of the political world are dened.
The article aims to investigate “sanctions” in the context of practical
political meaning.
The goal dened the corresponding tasks:
1. to analyze the theoretical and methodological foundations of the
implementation of sanctions as a factor of confrontation in war;
2. to nd the peculiarities and reasons for the formation of normative-
legal principles of the implementation of sanctions in the
implementation of criminal responsibility during the war;
3. examine the factors of the formation of sanctions.
Studies of sanctions as the basis of criminal-legal responsibility are
presented in many scientic works and publications. Various theoretical
and methodological approaches present the essence of the problem under
study in legal, socio-political, and other aspects (Kurilovská and Kordík,
2018).
Scientic works on sanctions illuminate the problematic of it in the
world sense. Legal Science in Action is a conceptualization of normative-
899
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 895-908
legal foundations in the scientic discourse of Abschnitt (1916), which
has been reprinted three times and translated into various languages.
The corresponding work illuminates’ sanctions as a theory and practice of
action, which is illustrated with relevant images revealing the content of
historical facts. There are also theoretical generalizations in the work as a
basis for dening the role of sanctions in modern warfare.
Interesting and unconventional in the context of the methodological
approach of the study are the works of Galasso et al. (2016), Gartner
(2018), and others, highlighting the peculiarity of sanctions as the essence
of criminal law responsibility.
1. Materials and methods
Theoretical and methodological approaches of the scientists were
analyzed for the purpose of eective research. The method of analysis and
synthesis was used in the study of performative practices of Ukrainian and
Russian content. In particular, the main manifestations of performance-
based practices were analyzed and, according to the synthetic methods, the
main features of the concepts on the research topic in the conditions of
modern information society were determined.
In the process of research philosophical and general scientic
approaches, principles and methods were used, which became the basis for
the analysis of the concept of sanctions in the context of various aspects.
The principle of transdisciplinarity reveals the content of the concept of
sanctions as a socio-cultural paradox.
With the help of philosophical methods, which became the ontological
basis of scientic work, in particular dialectics, we investigated sanctions
as a manifestation of the postmodern politicized and globalized worldview
of humanity in the conditions of modern information society and in the
context of the virtual environment. The historical method is the basis for
determining the factors of the formation of normative acts. The analytical
method becomes the basis for determining the structural components of
dierent concepts that characterize sanctions as a conceptual manifestation
of the modern artistic and social approach based on practices. The method of
generalization is applied to determine the important conceptual provisions
of the study.
2. Results
An important consideration in this article is the procedural nature of
this concept. It makes it possible to go beyond the political discourse itself.
900
Roman Maksymovych, Oksana Gorpyniuk, Iryna Serkevych, Mykhailo Akimov y Petro Korniienko
On the Principles of Sanctions of Criminal Law Norms in the Context of the Russian Invasion of
Ukraine: Clarication of Denitions
In some cases, when the legislator changes the upper limits of sanctions,
he thereby changes the category of the crime, which, accordingly, entails
a change in a number of criminal law consequences, since the category
of the crime aects many institutions of criminal law, such as parole,
the application of grounds for dismissal on criminal responsibility, the
limitation period for criminal liability (Brown et al., 2017).
The presence of signicant gaps between the lower and upper limits
of penalties enshrined in the sanctions of the articles of the special part
indicates that the legislator has diculty assessing the public danger of the
act, the signs of which are reected in the disposition of the corresponding
article of the criminal law.
This situation is due to the signicance of the range of lower and upper
limits of criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment in the sanctions
of the articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Code, which gives rise
to a fairly wide discretion of judges. Obviously, subsequently, it will not
contribute to the formation of uniform judicial practice. because of the
war are violated such basic principles of criminal law as legality, equality
of citizens before the law, and justice. It is unacceptable when a person is
sentenced to signicantly dierent terms of punishment for committing
the same in nature and consequences, which is clearly conrmed by the
materials of the criminal case in which the crime is committed.
In the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a number of sanctions were applied.
In particular, since the beginning of the war, economic sanctions have been
imposed in 2014, which should have stopped the aggression. Researchers
study the impact of sanctions as a warning of overt aggressive action on
the part of the perpetrator. Yes, when analyzing the eect of sanctions, it
can be argued that it is dicult to stop the aggressor in such circumstances
because it does not act according to logic. The aggressor does not stop,
because he decided to commit a crime (Gertler et al., 2016).
Nevertheless, sanctions economically reduce the capacity of the Russian
state, and, in the end, they may hinder the advancement of Russian troops.
After all, sanctions reduce revenues, making it impossible to pay for the
war. Thus, when examining the authors’ conclusions, it can be argued that
sanctions are an eective way of inhibiting aggression, but over a period of
time. When examining the Russian invasion, it can be argued that the crime
is committed, but the sanctions are eective for the next few months.
When assessing sanctions as criminal responsibility, one can be
more specic about the impact of sanctions on responsibility. Analysis
of publications shows that 60% of judges are positive about the fact that
the legislator removed the lower limits of sanctions because this expands
judicial discretion and gives more choice to the judge when imposing
punishment, implementing his principle of individualization; 15% of
901
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 895-908
judges support this idea because these changes reect the main direction
of criminal law policy - humanization of the criminal law. Only a third of
judges (30%) have a negative attitude towards this innovation because it
causes various diculties in the application of the new criminal law.
Court practice shows leaves the possibility for the judge to set the
punishment for a particular person, taking into account the specic
circumstances of the case, guided by legal conscience. A survey of judges
showed that 86% of them are guided by inner conviction in any case, and
more than 60% take judicial practice into account (Oswald, 2018).
Analysis of criminal sanctions enshrined in the legislation of foreign
states shows an ambiguous approach to their construction, due to the
belonging of the state to a particular criminal legal family (Troshani et al.,
2018).
In other words, the level of dierentiation of criminal responsibility
through sanctions in the legislation of dierent countries varies, which is
associated with the peculiarities of the formation and development of their
criminal legislation.
In the criminal legislation of some countries, there is a maximum
dierentiation of criminal responsibility, with limited judicial discretion
(Italy, France); in the legislation of other countries, the dierentiation
is minimal, which contributes to the determination of trends related to
sanctions: First, the formation of sanctions is determined by the types of
punishments enshrined in the Criminal Code.
As already noted, some of the penalties specied in the law are applied
very rarely, some are not applied at all. Hence there is confusion about the
types of punishments included in the sanction and their essence; Secondly,
the undeveloped mechanism of construction of sanctions, and their
inconsistency with each other both at the level of criminal law norms and at
the level of articles of the Criminal Code; third, there is excessive variability
in the sanctions of certain criminal law norms, and, on the contrary, in a
number of others, there is a lack of alternatives.
In the legal literature, there are proposals aimed at solving these
problems. Even before the adoption of the Criminal Code, a mechanism
for the construction of criminal law sanctions was developed. Jurists
investigated sanctions and argued that crimes of the same type have a
single nature of the public danger. Therefore, rst, it is necessary to assess
the typical features for a crime, which cannot exist separately and aect
the content of the sanction. This requires a unied assessment of all the
typical features inherent in a particular type of crime, which is achieved by
comparing them to each other. The resulting evaluation is an absolute value
and determines a certain sanction.
902
Roman Maksymovych, Oksana Gorpyniuk, Iryna Serkevych, Mykhailo Akimov y Petro Korniienko
On the Principles of Sanctions of Criminal Law Norms in the Context of the Russian Invasion of
Ukraine: Clarication of Denitions
Thus, it follows that one of the most signicant features of the corpus
delicti of a crime, enshrined in the disposition of a criminal-law norm,
depends entirely on the absolute value. Such a sign is determined by
ranking the signs of one type of a crime (for example, iniction of harm to
health - its degree, etc.). The main feature is the typical type of punishment,
which is established based on the average ranking of the penalty measure
as the median of the sanction.
In order to determine the regulation of the sanction, it is necessary to
determine the essence of the sanction. The sanction is a certain part of the
legal norm, which in case of its violation implies the application of state
inuence in the form of coercion.
Thus, Melnyk (2022) believes that the sanction is a part of the norm of the
Special Part of the Criminal Code, which characterizes the characteristics of
responsibility for the crime specied in the disposition. Aladekomo (2022)
denes the sanction as an indication of the negative consequences arising
from the violation of legal norms.
Chachko and Linos (2022) argue that a sanction is a certain direction of
a rule that determines the degree of state coercion.
The sanction is important in determining the punishment for the
crimes caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, because it makes the
punishment individual, taking into account the general norms. That is, the
sanction allows you to determine the measure of punishment in the process
of its assignment. In war, it is necessary to determine the severity of the
crime, the category of the crime, the person who committed the crime, and
the circumstances that change the measure of punishment.
Also in war, international organizations must be enlisted to determine
the measure of the crime. That is, it is important to determine the procedure
for sanctioning punishment. The sanction helps the court to determine the
measure of punishment, taking into account dierent circumstances. The
legislator imposes punishment according to the specic circumstances and
takes into account the necessary measure of punishment. The punishment
is individualized because it takes into account all of the circumstances that
have occurred virtually.
In some circumstances, in particular, as with war, that is, under special
circumstances, the sanctions provide for additional penalties that meet
the additional circumstances. Sanctions are imposed in accordance with
the principles of humanity and moral standards. They must be fair in the
context of criminal responsibility under international law.
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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3. Discussion
Legal perception of sanctions is relevant at the time of the invasion of
Ukraine by Russian troops. Sanctions are one of the most relevant varieties
of legal responsibility, most accurately representing the values of modern
society. This statement may or may not be true. Let us try to understand the
relevance of the principle of sanctions as a type of legal responsibility in the
conditions of modern military conict, as well as dene the meaning of law
in the sociological and political aspects.
Modern socio-humanitarian studies are reected in the context of various
scientic and sociopolitical approaches. Thus, sanctions are seen as a form
or type of criminal-legal responsibility as a socio-cultural phenomenon.
Many researchers interpret a sanction as a political action that forces certain
actions, so the sanction is seen as a political decision. The main purpose of
a sanction is to bring the oender to justice. Accordingly, there must be a
human reaction, that is, social interaction takes place. Hence, a sanction is
a manifestation of the social aspect.
Take into account that every person creates his or her own idea of the
world, his or her own visual picture of the world, which is a set of general
reections of personal worldview perception of the world, formed in the
process of development of the historical and cultural epoch. Sanction
acquires new features and forms and expands the range of its action in the
conditions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In the modern world, the sanction is an ambiguous political-legal
phenomenon, because it is dicult to dene its political or social meaning.
Such aspects of sanctions are also determined by the existence of dierent
attitudes and principles, a variety of methodological attitudes and principles.
The sanction reects political, social, and artistic actions in the context of
the modern military challenge, which is the main substantive phenomenon
of criminal-legal responsibility. The political and social aspect is most
important in the formation of the concept of presence in space, which is a
reection of responsibility.
In general, the proposals on the consideration of sanctions in the work
are interesting for further scientic research. However, due to the presence
of certain shortcomings, they cannot be fully supported. Speaking about
the signs of a crime, it is impossible to single out the main one, since all
the signs in the composition of a crime form a system reecting its public
danger.
At the same time, they in the aggregate are the basis of criminal
responsibility, which in accordance with the Law is the commission of an
act that contains all the features of a crime. The legislator, dening the
basis of criminal liability, does not single out any of the signs of the most
signicant.
904
Roman Maksymovych, Oksana Gorpyniuk, Iryna Serkevych, Mykhailo Akimov y Petro Korniienko
On the Principles of Sanctions of Criminal Law Norms in the Context of the Russian Invasion of
Ukraine: Clarication of Denitions
Chachko and Linos (2022) believe that initially the sanctions should be
set by the logical rule of matching the upper and lower limits of one category
of crime. The author proposes the introduction of two more categories of
crimes - minor and exceptional gravity. According to this, crimes of low
gravity should provide for custodial penalties in the sanctions. For crimes
of minor gravity, sanctions should range from 2 months to 2 years of
imprisonment.
In general, while agreeing with Gartner (2018), we note, however,
the excessive categorization of crimes. There is no need, in our opinion,
to single out a category of exceptional gravity. Punishment through life
imprisonment and the death penalty can be provided for especially grave
crimes. Crimes of minor gravity, when combined with crimes of minor
gravity, should be classied as criminal.
Developing this position, Grodska (2017) notes that “a private” means of
reducing the entropy of the legal complex could be a principled transition
from the preferential use of an alternative to certain sanctions in the
construction of legal norms to the preferential use of alternative absolutely
certain sanctions. Such a solution is inappropriate for some authors because
this, in their view, could seriously limit the freedom of judicial discretion
and the possibility for a thorough dierentiation of the responsibility. This
disadvantage, according to the researchers, can be largely compensated by
means of legal techniques.
Other scholars are less categorical, they propose a return to perfectly
dened sanctions only for some varieties of a criminal act, for example for
acts committed in the eld of organized crime. The position of Kay, who
notes that as part of the strengthening of the ght against corruption and
organized crime, the issue of this type of sanction becomes relevant.
In his opinion, one of the main lines of criminal policy in case of
subsequent reform of the criminal law in the part concerning sanctions of
criminal law norms should be the reduction of the number of alternative
sanctions. Certain sanctions through imprisonment should become more
widespread, which is due to the socio-psychological perception of this type
of punishment by the population.
Continuing the scholarly discussion, we should turn to the view of
Potapchuk (2020), who proposes the construction of a step-by-step system
of sentencing. He believes that it is possible to establish an absolutely
certain punishment for this type of crime, abstracted from the presence of
mitigating and aggravating circumstances. Thus, punishment is formed,
which is calculated as an arithmetic mean according to the minimum and
maximum limits of the sanction.
Further steps and decreasing the punishment are determined. To dene
the step of increasing the punishment it is necessary to divide the range
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between the received average and the maximum limit of the sanction by the
number of all the aggravating circumstances of committing a crime. The step
of decreasing the sanction is calculated in the same way, the distribution is
made by the number of all possible mitigating circumstances.
The number of sanctions multiplied by the number of burdensome
circumstances proven in the case. The concrete punishment to the person
found guilty of committing a crime, in particular during a military invasion
by the Russian army, is appointed by means of the sum of the received
average punishment and the total amount of increase of the punishment
and the dierence of the total amount of its decrease.
In this case, the basis of the calculation is the sanctions of the current
criminal law, which require revision. However, in the assignment of
punishment, it is necessary to take into account also the personality of the
guilty.
Proposals related to the search for a mathematical correlation of crimes
and punishments, with a full formalization of the process of sentencing,
require further elaboration and coordination with international legislation.
In the process of individualization of punishment judicial discretion
cannot be replaced by anything. At the same time, some formalization by
the legislator of such discretion would lead to greater stability of judicial
practice, its uniformity, strengthening of the rule of law, and maximum
realization of the principle of justice (Potapchuk et al., 2020). Summarizing
the above views, it should be noted that a balance between judicial discretion
and the formalization of the process of sentencing should be observed in
the construction of sanctions. The sanction, on the one hand, should ensure
the principle of diversity of criminal responsibility, and on the other - its
individualization.
Conclusions
Rethinking the very content of the concept of “right,” the presence of
obligatory characteristics that distinguish one artistic branch from another
(for example, language), make the principle of punishment one of the
varieties of modern politics and at once a socially signicant act. In this
way, the boundaries separating the political and legal spheres are overcome,
making it possible to implement the principle of sanction. At the same
time, sanctions, being universal and cross-species in nature, represent a
kind of crossroads of interdisciplinary studies: jurisprudential, political,
psychological, and sociological.
The correlation of law enforcement by the framework of the law with the
freedom of choice of measures of criminal-legal nature should be optimal,
906
Roman Maksymovych, Oksana Gorpyniuk, Iryna Serkevych, Mykhailo Akimov y Petro Korniienko
On the Principles of Sanctions of Criminal Law Norms in the Context of the Russian Invasion of
Ukraine: Clarication of Denitions
corresponding to the principles of legality, justice, and equality of citizens
before the law. The rules of construction of sanctions developed in the
science of criminal law, which exclude the dierence between the minimum
and maximum values of a certain type of punishment, should be taken into
account by the legislator when reforming the criminal law. In joining this
position, we note that it is necessary to reduce such a signicant dierence
in sanctions, including those that enshrine criminal responsibility for the
commission of grave and especially grave crimes.
To summarize, we emphasize that criminal-legal sanctions should reect
the legislative assessment of the public danger of unlawful action in the
context of military invasion. However, as our analysis shows, in the current
legislation sanctions do not always reect the nature and degree of public
danger of deeds, in connection with which it is necessary to thoroughly
review them, since our state has not had in practice war crimes, so it is
dicult to evaluate the eectiveness of sanctions.
Improvement of criminal-legal regulation with individualization of
punishment implies consistent reforming of sanctions of criminal-legal
norms based on the principle of inevitability of criminal liability taking into
account the degree of public danger of a crime and the harm caused.
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Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
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Universidad del Zulia. Maracaibo-Venezuela
Vol.40 Nº 74