Legal basis of confidential cooperation in the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine

Abstract

The relevance of this study is conditioned upon the fact that special legislation regulating investigative operations, combating organized crime, ensuring the security of people cooperating with law enforcement agencies, adopted in 1992–1994, does not meet the conditions of modern life (liberalization and digitalization of society; changes in the banking and financial sector; ease of crossing borders, etc.), and the challenges facing the law enforcement system (transnational crime; development of technologies that complicate the technical removal of information; use of cryptocurrencies and quasi-money, etc.). The main disadvantage of this legislation is the lack of regulation of confidential cooperation as the main tool for combating crime. The purpose of this study was to investigate the state of legal support for confidential cooperation using evidence from the activities of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine; to identify gaps, contradictions, and conflicts; to identify ways to improve legislation. General scientific, logical, and general legal methods were used. The paper analysed the state of scientific research on the subject under study, systematized the current legislation of Ukraine, and compared its individual norms. The main study results are that the legal basis of confidential cooperation is considered for the first time as a system of legal norms of an intersectoral legal institution, not limited exclusively to the procedural aspect or scope of application. The present study is the first to investigate the functioning of the institution of confidential cooperation in the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine. The paper stated that the absence of proper statutory regulation at the level of laws of Ukraine and the lack of systematization of existing norms, which creates risks of abuse, violation of citizens’ rights and freedoms. It was noted that the gaps in the legislation are filled in by departmental regulations of the relevant law enforcement agencies with the appropriate classification of secrecy. The study covered the essence and purpose of confidential cooperation, the legal norms prescribed in various laws, the specifics of their application, the subject of their legal regulation, as well as analysed differences in the legal regulation of cooperation with confidants and whistle-blowers. The practical value of this study lies in the fact that its results can be used by practising lawyers, namely investigators, prosecutors, and barristers, for whom the institution of confidential cooperation is new considering the secret forms and methods of its functioning