Criminalizing Atrocity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark S. Berlin
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Professional Communities ◽  
Norm Diffusion ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Atrocity Crimes ◽  
Criminal Legislation ◽  
Government Initiative

Why do countries adopt criminal legislation making it possible to prosecute government and military officials for human rights violations? Over the past thirty years, dozens of countries have prosecuted their own or other states’ officials for past atrocities. Criminalizing Atrocity tells the story of the global spread of national criminal laws against atrocity crimes—genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—laws that have helped pave the way for this remarkable trend toward greater accountability. It traces the early-twentieth-century origins of national atrocity laws to a group of influential European criminal law scholars and explains the global patterns by which they have since spread. The book shows that understanding why countries criminalize atrocities requires understanding how they do so. In many cases, criminalization has not been the result of concerted government initiative, but of inconspicuous choices made by technocratic legal experts who have been delegated authority to draft large-scale reforms to countries’ criminal codes. Drawing on research in comparative law and norm diffusion, Criminalizing Atrocity explains how such reform projects prompt technocratic drafters to select legal ideas, like atrocity laws, that have been endorsed by their professional communities and deemed by drafters to be important features of a “modern” criminal code. To test this argument, Criminalizing Atrocity draws on a range of original quantitative and qualitative data, including in-depth case studies of Guatemala, Colombia, Poland, and the Maldvies, and a new, comprehensive dataset tracking the global spread of atrocity laws since Word War II. The book’s findings highlight the importance of professional communities in the modern renaissance of atrocity justice and the domestication of international legal norms.

scholarly journals FEATURES OF PUBLIC OFFICIAL IN CRIMINAL LAW OF UKRAINE

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-120
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Tsyvinskyi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Code ◽  
Regulatory Function ◽  
Public Official ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Criminal Legislation ◽  
Regulatory Functions

Introduction. In spite of definitude of the concept of public official directly in Criminal Code of Ukraine, its definition makes many difficulties. As the result there is an absence of the only approach concerning interpretation of context and amount of the concept in theory as well as ambiguous applying of relevant criminal and legal norms in enforcement practice. Purpose. The purpose of the article is to find out the subject matter of public official, as well as preparation of improvement of definition of the public official notion in criminal legislation. Results. Persons, that implement functions of a representative of authority or local self-administration, should also be referred as persons empowering the rights from state and its bodies; municipalities, bodies of local self-government make demands and solve problems, which are necessary for implementation by external respondents (entities, that are not subordinate by position and legal entities) and also implement from state, its bodies, bodies of local self-government enforcement measures in case of violations of legal norms. Organizational and regulatory functions should be exclusively considered as functions of administration working with employees that are implemented by person’s availability to make orders, instructions, commands, take encouragement and penalty measures referring to them. Administrative and economic functions should be perceived as functions of administration or disposal of other people’s property. Conclusion. Based on the research the author suggests to apply the defined term of public official instead of terms "an individual fulfilling functions of representative of authority or local self-government" "organizational and regulatory function" and "administrative and economic functions", terms "an individual empowered fulfilling state functions or local self-government", "functions concerning administration of work with employees" and "functions of administration and disposal of other people’s property" accordingly.

scholarly journals Fighting the smuggling of strategically important resources for environmental safety ensuring

2021 ◽  
Vol 258 ◽  
pp. 05019
Author(s):  
Vladislava Zaigraeva
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Environmental Safety ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Biological Resources ◽  
Rare And Endangered Species ◽  
Rare And Endangered ◽  
Criminal Legislation

The international illegal trade of rare flora and fauna objects has long been an acute international issue. At the same time, a significant volume of smuggled rare species of animals and plants falls on Russian Federation. In order to counter criminal encroachments against rare and endangered species of animals and aquatic biological resources, amendments were made to the Russian criminal legislation, including Article 226.1. of Criminal Code of Russian Federation, in accordance with which criminal liability is established for the smuggling of especially valuable wild animals and aquatic biological resources listed in the Red Book of Russian Federation and (or) protected by international treaties of Russian Federation. At the same time, the imperfection of legal norms governing liability for smuggling significantly reduces the level of their protection. These circumstances require constant improvement of measures to counter smuggling, including criminal law improvement.

Explaining the Criminalization of Atrocities

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-49
Author(s):  
Mark S. Berlin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Rational Expression ◽  
Reform Processes ◽  
Technical Features ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
Code Reform

This chapter presents a theory explaining why states criminalize atrocity offenses in national law. It identifies and theorizes two different pathways to criminalization: targeted legislation and wholesale criminal code reform. These two pathways result from the efforts of different actors with different motivations, and thus represent distinct behavioral logics. Drawing on research on commitment to human rights norms, this chapter argues that criminalization through targeted legislation reflects policymakers’ preferences over the use of violent abuse. Following Simmons, this explanation is referred to as the “rational expression thesis.” In contrast, criminalization though criminal code reform reflects the views of technocratic criminal code drafters over what features they deem to be important for a “modern” code. The book refers to this as the “technocratic legal borrowing thesis,” and it is the main focus of this chapter. The chapter draws on comparative law scholarship and research on professional communities in policymaking to argue that large-scale legal reform processes are a unique and potent opportunity for international legal norms to be incorporated into domestic institutions. It theorizes how these processes empower technocratic legal experts and motivate them to seek out emblematically “modern” norms. This pursuit leads experts to borrow legal ideas from their regional peers and leading transnational professional associations, and in the post-World War II era, such sources have often favored atrocity criminalization. In turn, the depoliticizing context of technocratic modernization helps paint atrocity provisions as merely technical features of a “modern” code, thus reducing government scrutiny of them and facilitating their ultimate approval.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN RUSSIAN CRIMINAL ANTI-CORRUPTION LEGISLATION

2018 ◽  
pp. 21-29
Author(s):  
Andrey Sergeyevich Burtsev ◽  
Vyacheslav Sergeyevich Semenyakin
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Minimum Size ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Criminal Legislation ◽  
Modern Russian

We consider development of modern criminal legislation features in the anti-corruption sphere. The urgency of the fight against corruption in the Russian Federation and the difficulties standing in its way are emphasized. Noted the specificity of the Russian legislation in the anti-corruption sphere, which consists in the fact that the modern Russian criminal law mechanism of combating corruption is firmly based on international legal acts. The main stages of development and formation of modern anti-corruption legislation, its connection with international law are considered. The role of legal norms in strengthening the security of the state, increasing its authority in the world is revealed. A large number of sources of corruption law are analyzed, including the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Federal laws, the Decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation. Changes made to the legislation in different years concerned the subject structure, the minimum size of a bribe, nature of commission of crime, etc. In the course of the analysis of anti-corruption norms of criminal law traced their relationship with the non-criminal legislation in force in this area, noted their mutual influence. It is concluded that the current anti-corruption criminal legislation has been formed in the Russian Federation, but the process of its development due to the ongoing socio-economic transformations of society is not completed. The necessity of an effective legal mechanism regulating public relations arising in the case of a corruption-related crime is noted.

PHARMACEUTICAL LAW: CRIMINAL ASPECTS

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 203-209
Author(s):  
ANNA SEREBRENNIKOVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Active Phase ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Scope Of Application ◽  
General Scientific ◽  
Criminal Legislation

The author, considering the possibility of the emergence of a new branch of law in the future - pharmaceutical law, focuses on the complexity of regulating the sphere of turnover of medicines, at the same time pointing to this as the main reason for the uncertainty of the legislator in matters of the correctness of the choice of the object and subject of legal regulation. The author, citing examples from practice, draws attention to the fact that pharmaceutical activity is gradually becoming the object of regulatory regulation of various legal institutions, where the turnover of medicines, as well as medicines and other products containing raw materials of a medicinal nature, can be subject not only to the rules of civil turnover, as well as other special acts, but also to the norms of criminal law. The purpose of the study: To analyze the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation, including articles of the Criminal Code that establish responsibility for crimes in the field of pharmaceutical criminal law. Methodology and methods: the article uses both general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, and the method of interpretation of legal norms, which together make it possible to more effectively analyze the institutions of criminal law and determine the directions of development of the norms of pharmaceutical criminal law. Conclusions: as a result of the study, the author consistently substantiated the conclusion that the scope of application of criminal legislation in the control of pharmaceutical activities is expanding, at the same time, frequent violation of established prohibitions and regulations in the turnover of medicines suggests that the dialectical component of this issue is in an active phase of development, which indicates the inevitability (regularity and expediency) of the separation of a group of norms into a relatively autonomous group, which may be called pharmaceutical criminal law.

Legal Regulation of Prohibition of Discrimination in Criminal Legislation of Russia and Moldova

10.12737/5505 ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 93-102
Author(s):  
Ольга Семыкина ◽  
Olga Semykina
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Constitutional Principle ◽  
Official Position ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Criminal Legislation

The article provides a comparative analysis of the legal measures to combat discrimination in the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Moldova. Such a problem as regulation in the criminal law of antidiscrimination is active a large scale. In the Russian criminal legislation important legal guarantee the constitutional principle of equal rights and antidiscrimination is article 136 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Violation of equality of rights and freedoms of man and citizen). Meantime, as illustration the analysis of international antidiscrimination standards and trends to expand of these prescriptions in the legislation of CIS states, this criminal norm is far from perfect. The liability for discrimination can not be treated in direction with the commission of using official position. In our view, preventive legal prohibition in the article 136 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation will be significantly enhanced if to ask: 1) the return of criminal liability for discrimination of any individuals; 2) criminalization new aggravating circumstances.

scholarly journals CRIMINAL OFFENSES AGAINST OFFICIAL DUTY, WITH SPECIAL ANALYSIS OF THE CRIMINAL OFFENSE, ABUSE OF OFFICIAL POSITION AND AUTHORIZATION, ACCORDING TO CRIMINAL LEGISLATION AND PRACTICE

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1479-1486
Author(s):  
Tose Panov
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Code ◽  
Criminal Offense ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Official Position ◽  
Special Analysis ◽  
Criminal Offenses ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Basic Characteristics ◽  
Criminal Legislation

In this paper the author will try to analyze and describe the basic characteristics of the criminal offenses against official duty, and he will pay special attention to the criminal act "Abuse of official position and authority" from Article 353 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Macedonia as a general and fundamental criminal offense against official duty. The basic elements of the criminal offense will be analyzed, starting with the status of the perpetrators, the acts of committing, the consequences of the offense, the guilt of the perpetrator, and in the end are presented the qualified forms of this criminal act. Through the outburst of the legal norms, and the stated statistics we will try to give freshness to the legal text, and that is the main contribution of this paper.

scholarly journals Documents in the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Content and Their Relationship

2020 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-298
Author(s):  
M. I. Fialka
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Research ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Characteristic Functional ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Medical Sector ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Functional Orientation ◽  
Criminal Legislation

The subject matter of the scientific research carried out within the scientific article are documents as features of corpus delicti provided in the criminal legislation of Ukraine. The purpose of this article is to study the problem of the existence of the document, its varieties and their relationship in the structure of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Achieving this purpose within the study became possible due to the implementation of the relevant tasks, namely: to determine the list of criminal and legal norms, which provide the presence of a document in the form of certain features of corpus delicti; to establish the main content and essence of each type of the document; to establish the relationship of different types of documents in the structure of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. General scientific methods have been mainly used in the process of scientific research, namely: analysis, generalization, systematic approach and study of documents. This, in turn, provided an opportunity to formulate the novelty of the scientific research, which is to establish the content of the concepts of different types of documents within the Criminal Code of Ukraine and to establish their interdependence. Based on the study of the essence of the term of the “document” and its varieties, it has been emphasized the presence of certain characteristics, namely: the basic concept is the “document”; each type of document provided in the Criminal Code of Ukraine is used in a specific area of activity of society and the state (financial sphere, sphere of public administration, sphere of state secrets, medical sector, etc.); the content of information or data contained in the document is directly related to the scope of its use; the characteristic functional orientation of the document, as a rule, is directly reflected in its specific title (for example, the financial document is used in the financial sphere). It has been concluded that the concept of the “document” and its varieties are correlated with each other as general and specific. In this case, the document is understood as a general, and its varieties – as its specific forms.

scholarly journals Indonesian Penal Policy: Toward Indonesian Criminal Law Reform Based on Pancasila

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (02) ◽  
pp. 149-174
Author(s):  
Mokhammad Najih
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Penal Policy ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
The People ◽  
Penal Reform ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Criminal Legislation

Criminal law enforcement in Indonesia has always been a very crucial and the sexiest issue. Almost 35 years the idea of criminal law enforcement has been carried out and so far several concepts of the National Criminal Code have been born which continue to experience developmental dynamics that are quite interesting to study. The desire to realize a better criminal law and be able to fulfill the aspirations of the people is the ideal criminal law politics (penal policy). National Criminal Law must have characteristics that are typical of Indonesia, authentic and original, encompassing customary law, systems of values ​​and beliefs, characteristics of modern states and international values. Pancasila as the source of all sources of law, which has not received serious attention needs to be used as a recommendation for the paradigm of penal reform. Pancasila has at least the main principles that must be implemented in all formulations of criminal legislation. These principles are among others, principles based on the source of religious values (Godhead / Divine God), the value of humanity (humanism), the value of unity and peace, the value of democracy and the value of social justice. Therefore, Indonesian criminal law must have values that are based on Pancasila, both in the form of legal norms (addresaat norm), on the types of acts that are regulated (straafbar), in the form of punishment or sanctions (straafmaat), as well as regulatory aspects and implementation of law enforcement  law (formal law).

Part II Predominant Security Challenges and International Law, Human Security, Ch.19 Atrocity Crimes and Large-scale Human Rights Violations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieng Adama
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Bill Of Rights ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Atrocity Crimes ◽  
Human Family

This chapter discusses the prevention of conflicts and protection of populations from atrocity crimes and large-scale human rights violations, which remains a primary responsibility of States. Indeed, in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, United Nations Member States reaffirmed their responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. The chapter argues that the international community cannot undertake meaningful prevention without respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms universally recognized and guaranteed by the International Bill of Rights and other international and regional instruments. As underscored by the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace’. It is therefore crucial that respect for human rights is put at the heart of prevention of atrocity crimes.

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