Тлумачення кримінально-правових норм у рішеннях Конституційного Суду України: автореферат

Abstract

Здійснено комплексний аналіз проблеми тлумачення кримінально- правових норм Конституційним Судом України. З’ясовано стан дослідження в юридичній літературі вказаної проблеми. Проаналізовано підходи до розуміння тлумачення кримінально-правових норм Конституційним Судом України. Визначено об’єкт і предмет такого тлумачення, його межі та методологічний підхід до визначення змісту кримінально-правової норми Конституційним Судом України. Встановлено види актів Конституційного Суду України, які є формою кримінального права, та досліджено особливості їх дії у часі. Сформульовано критерії, які дозволяють визначити належність конкретного акта Конституційного Суду України до форми кримінального права. На основі цих критеріїв сформовано перелік таких актів і здійснено їх критичний аналіз.The thesis is dedicated to a complex analysis of the problem of interpretation of criminal norms by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (hereinafter – CCU). A large number of legal studies in the field of the constitutional law and theory of law have focused on the problem of interpretation of legal norms by the CCU. However, little research has been undertaken to investigate a specific type interpretation provided by this Court – interpretation of criminal norms. In native criminal law researches a great deal of emphasis has been made on the analysis of separate decisions of the CCU and their influence on criminal law. The issues of methodological approaches to the interpretation of criminal norms by the CCU, limits of such interpretation, the algorithm of selection of acts, which are the form of criminal law, remained unclear. The analysis of the CCU practice provides the evidence for the absence of a sole methodological approach to the interpretation of criminal norms. It is assumed that the result of such interpretation type depends on the value outlook of judges of the CCU. It is emphasized on the advantage of the natural law theories as a legal reasoning of the result of interpretation of criminal norms by the CCU. Using the described approach, the concept of interpretation of criminal norms by the CCU has been defined. The present thesis also analyzes the object and subject of the above interpretation type, under which correspondingly the criminal norm and articles of the criminal code and of laws to which the Criminal code dispatches are suggested. Taking into consideration the native law provisions on the grounds for the constitutional application or submission and the analysis of the CCU practice, criminal norms that can be objects of the normative and casual interpretation by the CCU are specified. It is substantiated that only those acts of the CCU that meet certain criteria can be forms of the criminal law. On the basis of such criteria as content of legal positions, normativeness and normative novelty those types of CCU acts, which can be form of the criminal law, are defined. Proceeding from the legal nature of the CCU acts, provisions of the current Ukrainian legislation and criminal law science provisions, the rules of operation in time of those acts as a form of criminal law are yielded. In the thesis author also reveals the differences between the interpretation of criminal norms by the CCU and their particularization, criminalization, decriminalization and differentiation of criminal responsibility. Also the author proposes criteria for the selection of the CCU acts, that contain the interpretation of the criminal law norms: the content of the legal positions; connection between normative provision and the content of the criminal law norm; type of authority that resulted in the formulation of the legal position. Using the described criteria, 119 decisions (appendix A), 4 determinations (appendix B) and 2 conclusions (appendix C) of the CCU are specified as forms of criminal law. The determined legal positions, that these acts contain, are differentiated and analyzed by their reference to the institutions of the general (operation of criminal law in time, criminal responsibility and punishment) and the specific part of criminal law. Proceeding from the analysis of the CCU acts – forms of the criminal law – such regularities are revealed: 1) in all cases of contradictions between the provisions of the CCu acts and the European Court of human rights acts which refer to criminal law, the higher standards of human rights were demonstrated by the last; 2) most decisions of the CCU, that are forms of criminal law, refer to direct or indirect explanation of the content of blanket dispositions of criminal code articles; 3) frequently the content of the same element of crime or criminal law concept is exposed in few CCU acts; 4) the CCU legal positions can refer to questions of crimes qualification and differentiation of compositions of crimes (the author specified one act for each of these questions). The author assumes that in some cases the CCU performs the legislative function instead of the interpretation of criminal norms. The CCU fills gaps in the legal regulation (for example, the CCU’s legal position concerning the concept «official person») or brings a national criminal legislation in correspondence with the valid international treaties (for example, decision on the unconstitutionality of death penalty). It is established that some CCU legal positions are formulated with an impropriate use of methods of interpretation (for example, CCU legal position on the concept of «a blanket criminal law»).