Ще раз про зворотну дію кримінального закону у часі в аспекті опосередкованої криміналізації

Abstract

Розглянуто проблеми аргументації можливості застосування рішення Конституційного Суду України від 19.04.2000 р. «Про зворотну дію кримінального закону у часі» до випадків так званої «опосередкованої криміналізації». Обґрунтовано недоцільність та неможливість використання ні резолютивної, ні мотивувальної частини цього рішення до аналізованого випадку, пов’язаного зі зміною значення неоподатковуваного мінімуму доходів громадян. Аргументовано також те, що використання Касаційним кримінальним судом Верховного Суду в Україні посилання на згадане рішення Конституційного Суду негативно відобразиться на формуванні судової практики та потребує перегляду. The article deals with the problems of argumentation of the possibility of applying the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine of 19.04.2000 «On the retroactive effect of the criminal law in time» to cases of so-called «indirect criminalization». The inexpediency and impossibility of using either the operative or the motivational part of this Decision in the considered case connected with the change in the value of the non-taxable minimum income of citizens is substantiated. As to the content of the provisions of the operative part of the analyzed Decision, they are formally legally controversial. There is the well-known provision in legal science that an interpretative act stops operating if it is canceled or replaced by another interpretative act, as well as in case of termination of legal acts, the provisions of which were the subject of interpretation. It seems that in the analyzed situation it is necessary to act exactly this way. Secondly, nowadays, according to Article 150 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine has lost the authority to officially interpret the Laws of Ukraine. Taking the abovementioned into account, formally it is legally controversial to apply the operative part of the Decision of the Constitutional Court in terms of the official interpretation of the provisions of Article 6 and Article 81 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine of 1960 to legal relations arising after the entry into force of the Criminal Code of Ukraine of 2001. Concerning the motivational part of the Decision, the article states that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine proceeded from the most positivist approach – without making any distinction between the law (as a legal act) and law (as all the sources of law). Such an approach made it possible to make a substantial error of substantive nature. The Constitutional Court pointed at the general content of the blanket disposition of the criminal-law norm. It seems that it does not have such content. Moreover, neither the blanket disposition of the norm with the «general» content nor «the verbal documentary form of the criminal law», which, according to the Constitutional Court, «has not undergone any changes», shall be applied. It is the criminallaw norm, containing the features of the corpus delicti of a crime, no matter where they are specified, that shall be applied. It is as well substantiated that the use by the Cassation Criminal Court of the Supreme Court of Ukraine of the reference to the mentioned Constitutional Court Decision will have negative effect on the formation of judicial practice and needs to be reviewed. The Cassation Criminal Court, by adopting the Resolution of May 24, 2018, in the case № 418/968/16-k with the use of the Decision of the Constitutional Court of 19.04.2000 (the case on the retroactive effect of the criminal law in time), has violated the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine and applied the legal position, which shall not be applied in this legal situation. Such a solution of the case by the Supreme Court is not just wrong, but dangerous, as it can lead the judicial practice in a wrong way. In this regard, it would be right to qualify such a case as the one that has an exclusive legal problem and to pass it on to the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in order to ensure the development of law and the formation of single law enforcement practice (Part 5 of Article 4341 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine).