Combating commodity smuggling in Ukraine: in search of the optimal legislative model

The purpose of the paper is to identify optimal legislative model of criminal law counteraction to commodity smuggling in Ukraine, taking into account experience of foreign countries, primarily the European Union. The following research methods have been used to study criminal legislation, prove hypotheses, formulate conclusions: comparative law, system analysis, formal logic and modeling methods. Taking into account the achievements of criminal law science, materials of law enforcement practice, he results of sociological surveys and based on the analysis of accompanying documents to the relevant bills, social conditionality of criminalization of smuggling of goods have been clarified. Foreign experience of criminalization of commodity smuggling in the legislation of the European Union has been investigated. Legislative initiatives in this area have been critically considered. Major attention in this aspect has been paid to the shortcomings and debatable provisions of the draft law “On Amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine on the Criminalization of Smuggling of Goods and Excisable Goods and Inaccurate Declaration of Goods” (Registration # 5420 of April 23, 2021). Author’s proposals on the relevant improvements of criminal legislation have been put forward and substantiated.

Criminal law protection of witnesses and victims (comparative analysis experience)

This article deals with the process of criminal law protection of witnesses and victims. The legislation of the state establishes certain normative acts regulating this branch of law. It is necessary to clearly and strictly observe all measures. The world experience of this issue was also studied, where the Human Rights Convention was used. It is worth noting that each country has its own procedures and legislation, the experience of criminal legal protection is very different from the Russian legislative model of criminal legal protection of witnesses and victims. The purpose of the study is to study the criminal law protection of witnesses and victims. Main results of the study: 1. Criminal-legal protection in Russia is considered; 2. The world experience of protection of victims and witnesses has been studied; 3. The normative-legal acts in this area have been analyzed. The object of the study is witnesses and victims. The subject of the study is the main measures of criminal law to ensure the protection of citizens. The degree of development of this issue is very extensive. This study was carried out by such scientistsas I. L. Kozochkipa, A. Petrovsky, Kvashis V. E., Zaitsev O. A., Aparova T. V. and others. The research of foreign scientists, such as: Waller I.

Criminal law counteraction to land pollution in the EU countries: searching for the optimal model

The main goal of the article is to study both advantages and disadvantages of the approaches of the European Union (EU) states to criminal law prevention of land pollution. As a result of this an optimal legislative model should be developed to protect this element of the environment from criminal encroachment, which can be further used by the EU states in improving existing or creating new rules aimed at criminal law protection of land resources from pollution or the creation of new rules aimed at criminal law protection of land resources from pollution. The following research methods have been used to study criminal law provisions of the selected countries, to prove the stated hypotheses and to formulate conclusions: comparative law, system analysis, formal-logical, dialectical and modeling method. As a result of the study of various models of criminal law protection of land resources embodied in the legislation of nineteen European Union states, it has been proved that: 1) such protection should be carried out by a single universal rule on criminal liability for pollution not only of land but also of other components of the environment (water, air, forest); 2) only such land pollution shall be considered criminal, which has led to real (non-potential) damage to the environment, human health or property damage; 3) liability for land pollution should be differentiated depending on: a) weather guilty person’s act was intentional or negligent; b) what the consequences of land pollution have been.

Pandemic Parliamentary Oversight of Delegated Legislation: Comparing the Performance of Westminster Systems

The COVID-19 pandemic is testing parliamentary systems of governance across the world, especially in relation to oversight of executive actions. Observers in multiple jurisdictions have already noted the proliferation of delegated legislation during the pandemic and the shortcomings in legislative oversight of the same. To date, however, no close analysis has been conducted of the way in which legislative oversight mechanisms have broken down during the pandemic. This paper provides such an analysis, using examples from Westminster systems adopting the ‘legislative model’ of providing extraordinary powers. Looking at individual examples from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the analysis seeks to identify and explain the failures, and relative successes, in different mechanisms for parliamentary oversight, including parliamentary scrutiny committees (pre-existing and ad-hoc), disallowance, and sunset clauses. Although primarily descriptive, the comparative approach analysis permits preliminary conclusions to be drawn as to the way each jurisdiction may improve its methods of parliamentary oversight of delegated legislation. These comparative lessons will be of use both during and beyond the pandemic.

CONSEQUENCES OF PERFORMANCE OF LEGAL ACTIONS WITH NO PRELIMINARY PERMISSION FROM A GUARDIANSHIP AND CUSTODIANSHIP AUTHORITY

The article reveals and critically analyzes the legislative model of legal effects in case of violation of the rule on the need to obtain preliminary permission from the guardianship authority to perform certain actions; the insufficient elaboration of the modern normative structure is proved, including from the position of a balanced and effective protection of the interests of the ward and third parties.

LEGISLATIVE MODEL FOR THE SECURITY OF INTERROGATION BAN AS A WITNESS IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

The author examines the legal regulation of the legislative regulation of the prohibition of interrogation as a witness, which has been increasingly strengthening over the past five years. The list of persons who cannot be interrogated as a witness in criminal cases is steadily expanding. The genesis of the safety of witness testimony lies in the ancient democratic norms of domestic and foreign legislation. Can we say that this is related to the institution of witness immunity, or is it a slightly different idea of the legislator? The author, on the basis of a historical and legal analysis of legal acts, substantiates the opinion about the idea of safety of prohibition of interrogation as a witness as a fundamental mechanism for the implementation of the constitutional right to state protection and the right to a legislative list of cases of exemption from the obligation to testify. The study offers a cross-sectoral analysis of the circumstances that are the criteria for prohibiting interrogation as a witness in criminal cases. A legislative model of procedural security procedures for the prohibition of interrogation as a witness is proposed.

A New Element in the Extradition Procedure

The aim of the article is to justify a new element in the procedure for the extradition of a person for criminal prosecution or sentence execution. This element is the checking for compliance with internationally recognized standards of the conditions of the possible detention before trial, incarceration, as well as during transfer, in the country this person is extradited to. The source basis of the study were materials of the European Court of Human Rights, courts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, the Main Directorate of International Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, materials of checks of confinement conditions in Russian penitentiary institutions. Materials of checks of confinement conditions in specific penitentiary institutions have been supplemented with materials of checks of conditions for transferring prisoners in the Russian Federation. The study is based on the application of the method of participatory observation expressed in the collection of factual material during direct participation in the work of the Main Directorate of International Legal Cooperation of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation in organizing checks by foreign experts of the confinement conditions of prisoners when deciding on extradition. Methods of observation, interviewing, experiment, analysis, comparison, and others were also used. The analysis of the available materials and the author’s own practice showed that foreign partners began to actively use information about unsatisfactory confinement conditions in prisons in specific cases as a basis for refusal to extradite people to Russia. When deciding on the extradition of persons detained at the request of the Russian side for criminal prosecution, the practice of foreign partners has introduced the organization of regular checks of the alleged confinement conditions in the Russian Federation on specific criminal cases in relation to specific persons. In order to overcome the emerging problems, on a contractual basis, foreign authoritative specialists are organizing inspections of the conditions in various penitentiary institutions. The results of such inspections in specific penitentiary institutions are of direct importance in matters of extradition in specific cases. On the basis of this material, the need was justified to include an additional element in the theoretical and legislative model of extradition, which no one has yet mentioned in the legal literature – checking the conditions of the possible detention of the extradited person before trial and incarceration. In order to overcome the negative trends, a set of measures at three different levels has been proposed to bring the conditions of the person extradited during the transfer to Russia in line with internationally recognized standards.

Personality Rights in China’s New Civil Code: A Response to Increasing Awareness of Rights in an Era of Evolving Technology

This article explores and assesses the significance of the adoption of a separate part (or, book 编) on personality rights in China’s new Civil Code. We argue that there are profound socioeconomic meanings underlying the technical changes in the classic structure of the civil codes in civil law tradition. On one hand, the stand-alone part on personality rights is the fruit and embodiment of the rising rights consciousness of personality in Chinese civil society, which has been largely unexplored in existing China studies. On the other hand, the part provides a new legislative model to comprehensively tackle the pervasive technological challenges to the protection of personal spheres, which is entangled with the rising rights consciousness over personality in China. Yet, the robustness of the acknowledgment of personality rights in this special part in promoting the protection of such rights remains to be tested in future court judgments.

Problems of the practice of the dismissal of the jury due to the tendentiousness of the composition: the effect of a legislative error or defects of judicial practice?

The article examines problematic issues of theoretical understanding, legislative regulation and application in judicial practice of the criminal procedure the institute of the dismissal of the jury in view of its tendentiousness. The article notes that this institution is not implemented in judicial practice in a positive aspect, since all variations for the manifestation of a possible tendentiousness of the collegium are rejected by appeal and cassation courts. It is concluded that there are two irreparable contradictions in the basis of the procedural consolidation of this institution, which determine the ineffectiveness of its positive application. The first contradiction, considered in the article, arises between the need to motivate the application for the dismissal of the jury in view of its tendentiousness and the amorphousness (uncertainty) of the grounds for such a group challenge. The second contradiction arises between the absence of grounds for peremptory challenge of each of the candidates for jury and the existence of grounds for the dismissal of the jury as a whole. The article concludes that the institution under consideration does not adequately fulfill the function of a legal means ensuring the impartiality and objectivity of the jury, and should be excluded from the legislative model of proceedings in the jury trial of the Russian Federation.