Implementation of the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to the Criminal Code of Ukraine: results and prospects

The article analyzes the results of the implementation of the provisions of Articles 6, 7, 8, 8 bis, 28, 29, 70 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (hereinafter referred to as the Rome Statute) to the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Code). Such implementation was carried out in accordance with the Law of Ukraine No. 4012-IX of October 9, 2024. The main conclusions are as follows:  1) the provisions of Article 28 of the Statute on the criminal liability of commanders and other superiors were implemented to Article 31-1 of the Code in violation of the system of the Code; this may result in unnecessary restriction of rights; therefore, a new article with a different content is proposed for inclusion in Section XX of the Special Part of the Code;  2) the implementation of the provisions of Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute on the crime of aggression to Article 437 of the Code was supported, while maintaining in this article criminal liability for related criminal acts related to armed conflicts;  3) the implementation of the provisions of Article 8 of the Rome Statute on war crimes to Article 438 of the Code was only partially implemented; amendments to Article 438 of the Code were proposed for the full implementation of Article 8 and the extension of its effect to violations of laws and customs applicable in non-international armed conflicts;  4) the implementation of the provisions of Article 6 of the Rome Statute on genocide to Article 442 of the Code was carried out with shortcomings in the form of inconsistency of certain provisions of Article 442 of the Code with the provisions of Article 6 of the Rome Statute;  5) the provisions of Article 7 of the Rome Statute on crimes against humanity are implemented in the Code by including Article 442-1 “Crimes against humanity”, which is a positive result; a negative result is the presence in Article 442-1 of provisions that do not comply with Article 7 of the Rome Statute in their content;  6) the amendments to Articles 49 and 80 of the Code, which relate to the non-application of the statute of limitations (Article 29 of the Rome Statute), as well as the amendments to Article 384 of the Code, which relate to crimes against justice (Article 29, paragraph 4, subparagraph “a” of the Rome Statute), are supported; at the same time, the amendments to Article 376 of the Code, which relate to crimes against justice, are recognized as inapplicable;  7) critical remarks are made regarding the provisions of the new Part 2 of Article 8 of the Code (it concerns the effect of the law on criminal liability) due to the fact that its practical application may lead to problems in Ukraine's relations with other states;  8) doubts are expressed regarding the compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine of the amendments made to Part 1 of Article 69 of the Code, which concern the imposition of punishment for international crimes.  Proposed amendments to the Code in order to eliminate shortcomings in the implementation of the provisions of the Rome Statute and improve the system of the Code.