MILITARY CRIMINAL OFFENSES: UKRAINIAN CONTEXT AND FOREIGN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The article examines the concept of “military criminal offense” through the prism of current criminal legislation in Ukraine and doctrinal approaches, and summarizes foreign experience in its assessment of criminal law. The author draws attention to the growing relevance of the problem in the context of full-scale armed aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the imposition of martial law, accompanied by an increase in the number of criminal offenses among military personnel, in particular, unauthorized absence from military units and desertion. The features of military criminal offenses as a separate category of unlawful acts that violate the established order of military service and directly affect the state of discipline, combat readiness, and the state`s defense capability are analyzed. It has been found that the current legislation of Ukraine does not provide a unified understanding of the concept of military criminal offenses, which complicates the classification of acts and the imposition of fair punishment. A comparative analysis of the Anglo-American and Romano- Germanic models of legal regulation of military crimes has been conducted. The first approach emphasizes the actual threat to discipline and combat readiness, thereby providing greater flexibility in judicial discretion, while the second prioritizes the law and detailed regulatory consolidation of the elements of offenses and sanctions, thereby increasing the predictability of criminal law consequences. Based on a comparative analysis, the feasibility of combining the high level of regulatory certainty of the Roman-German model with limited elements of flexibility of the Anglo-American approach to improve criminal law regulation in Ukraine is justified. The proposed scientifically based guidelines will contribute to improving the effectiveness of special prevention and ensuring the principles of justice and humanity in the field of military criminal offenses.