Peculiarities of legal assessment of aiding and abetting the aggressor state: National and international dimensions

Abstract

The Ukrainian legislator’s differentiation of criminal liability for certain manifestations of collaboration has led to unjustified competition and considerable difficulties in qualifying the relevant unlawful acts. The purpose of this study was to analyse the specific features of criminal liability for aiding and abetting the aggressor state in the national and international dimensions. To complete the tasks of this study, a set of scientific methods was employed: dogmatic – in the analysis of legal constructions of elements of collaboration and abetting the aggressor state; comparative legal – in the context of comparing the rules on liability for collaboration and the rules of international humanitarian law. The study showed that Ukrainian criminal law theory and court practice have not developed consistent approaches to the application of the rules on liability for collaboration. The study focused on the fact that the criminal legislation of Ukraine applies an approach whereby certain types of economic collaboration are factually identified with military collaboration, which does not follow international humanitarian law. It was concluded that when qualifying the transfer of material resources to representatives of the aggressor state, there is a competition between the provisions of Part 4 of Article 111- 1 and Article 111-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In such a situation, it is reasonable to apply the rule on liability for collaboration. It was found that the payment of taxes, fees, and other mandatory payments to the Russian budget of any level, made in the occupied territory of Ukraine by a citizen of Ukraine, a foreigner, a stateless person for themselves and/or in the interests of legal entities registered in the territory of the Russian Federation cannot be covered by the objective side of abetting the aggressor state, as it does not follow international humanitarian law and does not contain such a feature as voluntariness, which is a mandatory feature of the crime under Article 111-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The practical significance of this study lies in defining certain rules for qualifying aiding and abetting the aggressor state which may be used by pre-trial investigation authorities in the legal assessment of such behaviour