A draft of amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine is being considered currently. Firstly, the new collection will differ in the number of punishments. They will be reduced from 12 to 3. Lawyers have already begun to discuss the new rules and give their expert opinions.
Why is it difficult to learn a new set of laws?
Experts predict Ukrainians will be able to receive a new Criminal Code next year. The “General Part” has been published for professional assessment. What has changed there?
The developers are trying to protect the document from legislative spam. The first article states the document can be changed no more than twice a month, and each such change must be considered by the Supreme Court.
The document will be divided into books instead of the usual section. There will be three in the general part. They will have the following names:
⚜️ About criminal law
⚜️ About crime
⚜️ About criminal means of defense
The classification of crimes is also changing. There will be 9. They are divided into four already known types:
📍 Light weight
📍 Medium degree seriousness
📍 Severe
📍 Especially severe
This means the court will recognize a “crime of average gravity of the first degree” in the near future. The drafters of the bill have increased the list of circumstances affecting the court’s determination of the gravity of the crime. This list includes media or Internet use. The closeness between victim and perpetrator, such as marriage or other degrees of intimacy, will also be taken into account.
How will the new code punish?
The draft Criminal Code will not include twelve common types of punishment. It is planned to keep only three of them: a fine, imprisonment and life imprisonment. The maximum penalty is rarely applied in Ukraine. So only two types of punishment will actually be applied.
Most of the other fines will fall under the Security Tools section. For example, they may include involuntary mental health care, restrictions and disclosure of information about the person who committed the crime. A decrease in the number of punishments indicates their inevitability.
The publication of information about the person who committed the crime caused active discussions among lawyers. Because if an open registry of criminals such as Opendatabot is created, where it is easy to find out if a person is wanted, it would be a violation of human rights.
How and what categories of crimes fall under this rule is a moot point. So the project is being actively discussed in the expert community to be to ready for voting in the Verkhovna Rada.
