CRIMINAL PROHIBITION OF ILLEGAL USE OF HUMANITARIAN AID: DUBIOUS LEGISLATIVE NOVEL

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of a criminal offense under Art. 201-2 of the Crimi-nal code of Ukraine "Illegal use for the purpose of receiving profit of humanitarian aid, chari-table donations or free aid". The validity of the appearance of this criminal law novella and its impact on law enforcement have been clarified, the prospects for the development of criminal law in the relevant field have been determined. The inconsistencies of the analyzed criminal law prohibition with the provisions of reg-ulatory legislation - the laws of Ukraine "On Humanitarian Aid" and "On Charitable Activities and Charitable Organizations" are highlighted. In particular, it was established that the misuse of humanitarian aid, charitable donations, other than the disposal of such property for profit, does not constitute the criminal offense in question. It is proved that in the vast majority of cases the actions prohibited by the current version of Art. 201-2 of the Criminal Code, in its absence would be recognized as theft and would be qualified under one of the parts of Art. 191 of the Criminal Code as misappropriation, embezzlement or seizure of another's property by an official abusing his official position. It was found that the amendment of the Criminal Code of Art. 201-2 is another manifestation of the unjustified casuistry of the criminal law. The provision on the erroneousness of placing the investigated prohibition among the articles of the Criminal Code on liability for criminal offenses in the sphere of economic activity is argued. It is shown that today the shortcomings inherent in the punishment of illegal use of humani-tarian aid, charitable donations are partially eliminated by referring to Part 3 of Art. 201-2 of the Criminal Code on such a qualifying basis as the commission of acts during martial law. The provision on expediency of exclusion from the Criminal Code of the investigated criminal law prohibition as an unnecessary manifestation of excessive (excessive) criminaliza-tion is substantiated.