THE CONCEPT OF WAR CRIMES IN INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LAW

Abstract

The article examines international legal and national approaches to understanding the concept of war crimes. It was established that there is no definition of war crimes in the sources of international law, but there are only lists of specific acts that constitute a war crime. According to the norms of international law, actions that represent a deliberate violation of generally accepted customs and rules of war are war crimes. However, in the doctrine of international criminal law, the general definition of the concept of war crimes and their special characteristics have not been definitively formulated either. The scientific approaches of various scientists regarding the definition of war crimes are compared. Practically every researcher of war crimes tries to formulate his own definition of this concept, to put his meaning into it. Summarizing their definitions, it is suggested that war crimes should be understood as criminal acts committed during and in connection with an armed conflict of an international and non-international character, which violate the norms regarding the prohibition or restriction of the use of methods and means of conducting military operations, as well as norms aimed at protecting persons during an armed conflict. As special features of war crimes, it is established that war crimes are committed during armed conflicts of an international and non-international nature; encroach on the procedure for conducting armed conflicts of an international and non-international (internal) nature established by the basic principles of international law and international humanitarian law; the list of war crimes is contained in international documents. The Criminal Code of Ukraine does not define the concept of “war crime” and does not use this term. It is proposed to enshrine the concept of a war crime in the Criminal Code of Ukraine and define responsibility for its commission in articles that would be placed in one section of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which could be called “Crimes that violate prohibitions or restrictions on the use of methods and means of conducting military operations”, as well as place this section after section XX of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.