MILITARY JUSTICE OF UKRAINE: PROBLEMS OF DETERMINING THE BODIES THAT GOVERN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ITS SYSTEM
Summary: 1. Introduction. – 2. Military Justice System in Ukraine: De Lega Lata And De Lega Ferenda. – 3. Conclusions.
Abstract
Note from the Field
Access to Justice Amid War in Ukraine Gateway
The article focuses on the current issue of creating a military justice system for modern law enforcement practice. Based on the idea of military justice as a system of bodies, its composition, in the authors' opinion, should include: (1) the body that carries out the pre-trial investigation and/or supports law and order; (2) the body which oversees legality; (3) military courts.
In the article, the authors consider the genesis of the functioning of each of the bodies mentioned above, which, in their opinion, should be part of the military justice system, and emphasize that the idea of creating a system of military justice in this completed form was constantly discussed among scientists and practitioners. However, after Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine began, it ceased to be an idea and should be implemented soon.
Considering proposals for the creation of a pre-trial investigation body, which should investigate criminal offences committed by military personnel or other persons belonging to the armed formations as the first stage in the system of criminal justice bodies, the authors give a list of existing risks, which, in particular, include their subordination, which should not affect the independence and impartiality of the investigation.
Despite some turbulence in the legislative regulation of the work of the military prosecutor's office in Ukraine, this body, with different names, structural construction, subordination and staffing for a long time, in accordance with the system of the law, carried out the pre-trial investigation of war crimes, supervision over the legality of pre-trial investigation bodies and procedural management of the investigation.
Particular attention in the article is paid to arguments supporting the opinion on creating a system of military courts. The reasoning is strengthened by the appeal to the Memorandum of the Council of Europe on military courts and the experience of the functioning of military justice in Switzerland, Poland and Spain.
About Authors
Niebytov Andrii
Dr. Sc. (Law), Associate Professor, Head of the Main Department of the National Police in the Kyiv Region, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8493-3064 Corresponding author, responsible for writing and methodology.
Competing interests: Any competing interests were announced by co-authors. Disclaimer: The authors declare that their opinion and views expressed in this manuscript are free of any impact of any organizations.
Matviychuk Valeriy
Dr. Sc. (Law), Professor, Professor of Criminal Law, Procedure and Сriminalistics, Kyiv Institute of Intellectual Property and Law, National University ‘Odesa Law Academy’, Kyiv, Ukraine, alexmaytone@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3459-0056 Co-author, responsible for writing and data collection.
Mykytchyk Oleksandr
Cand. of Legal Science (Equiv. Ph.D. in Law), Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Criminal Law, Procedure and Сriminalistics, Kyiv Institute of Intellectual Property and Law, National University ‘Odesa Law Academy’, Kyiv, Ukraine, mikitchik@bigmir.net https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4973-2670 Co-author, responsible for writing and investigation.
Slavna Oksana
Cand. of Legal Science (Equiv. Ph.D. in Law), Associate Professor at the Department Constitutional Law and Human Rights of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, Kyiv, Ukraine, oksanaslavnay@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2683-281X Co-author, responsible for writing and data collection.
Translation: The content of this article was translated with the participation of third parties under the authors’ responsibility.
Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The Journal provides funding for this article publication.
Managing editor – Dr. Serhii Kravtsov. English Editor – Mg. Anastasiia Kovtun& Dr. Yuliia Baklazhenko.
Copyright: © 2022 Niebytov A, Matviychuk V, Mykytchyk O, Slavna O. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Keywords
- military justice; military police, pre-trial investigation bodies of military criminal offenses; military courts; judicial system; judicial control; justice; jurisdiction of war crimes
How to cite it?
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A Niebytov, V Matviychuk, O Mykytchyk, O Slavna, ‘Military Justice of Ukraine: Problems of Determining the Bodies that Govern the Construction of Its System’ (2022) 3(15) Access to Justice in Eastern Europe 203-218. DOI: 10.33327/AJEE-18-5.3-n000323
