The article under study carries out a complex analysis of a new element of a criminal offense (envisaged by Article 201-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) “The Illegal Use of Humanitarian Aid, Charitable Donations, or Gratuitous Aid to Receive Gain”. Besides, it substantiates the expediency of criminalizing such illegal behavior and reveals some potentially problematic issues that may arise in the course of bringing a person to criminal liability for such actions, as well as offers the possible ways of their solution. russia’s armed aggression, as well as the necessity to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine and internally displaced persons have intensified volunteer activity, the latter having acquired an unprecedented scale throughout the country. Consequently, there has occurred considerable increase of both the number of humanitarian cargoes and the number of pseudo-volunteers or unscrupulous officials, who pursue their own mercantile interests and cynically make money, selling humanitarian aid. All this could not remain unnoticed by the state and led to the adoption of a special legal norm in the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Particular emphasis has been laid in the article on the mandatory components and signs of basic, qualified and especially qualified elements of criminal offense. Along with this, the peculiarities of the subject of such illegal behavior (charitable donations, humanitarian and gratuitous aid), as well as the respective amounts of the latter, which give grounds for bringing criminal responsibility, have been regarded in detail. In addition, the article contains a conclusion on an unreasonably high minimum limit of the aid under discussion. As for the objective side of the offense, such an extremely important feature in today’s conditions as the time of its commission – during a state of emergency or martial law – is separately emphasized. Having used this word combination, the legislator has replaced the already established in criminal law wording “under conditions of war or state of emergency”, which always indicated such a feature as the circumstances of the crime. The subject of the offense has been considered with a due regard to its overall and specific signs. Another emphasis has been laid on the necessity to criminalize the respective socially dangerous activities of both official volunteers and officials who, although not vested with official powers, may (in connection with their position) have access to humanitarian aid items and actually dispose of them, etc. The subjective side of the offence appears rather interesting in terms of its purpose – to receive gain. The latter looks quite questionable since until now, such a phrase was used only in the context of the actual consequences of the subject’s illegal behavior. Therefore, the legislator should emphasize not on the fact of receiving gains but on the mercantile context of its disposal.
The article under studies relies on the understanding that the future of any state, society and mankind on the whole largely depends on the moral virtues of each individual. However, today's moral, spiritual and cultural basics are seriously challenged, annihilated and neglected. Resting on a comparative-legal analysis of the current criminal legislation of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, the article deals with the peculiarities of the criminal and legal protection of morality, identifies in the above legislations certain common and distinctive features in the context of existence and construction of legal norms, investigates their structural elements and, eventually, determines types of punishment. It has been substantiated that Ukrainian criminal legislation is rather progressive in terms of the criminal and legal protection of morality. It might be explained by the fact that respective criminal and legal prohibitions not only have been reflected in a special section of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, but are also described there in detail. In addition, these prohibitions are marked with partial, but at the same time significant and expedient changes and supplements that completely comply with the present-day challenges (for instance, in terms of liability for cruel treatment of animals, vandalizing a grave or other burial place or the body of the deceased, etc.). Particular emphasis has been laid on the fact that due to the recent changes in the Criminal Code, which came into force in March, 2021, especially striking are the elements of such crimes as access to child pornography, its acquisition, storage, import, transportation or other movement, production, sale and dissemination (Art. 301-1), and carrying out of entertaining action of sexual character with participation of the minor (Art. 301-2). On the other hand, the criminal legislation of Moldova does not contain a separate structural part, which would systematize all socially hazardous actions regarding morality. Instead, certain articles on the protection of social morality are enshrined in different chapters of a Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova. It is also important that the article under discussion draws a conclusion that the protection of social morality in the criminal legislation of Moldova comprises both traditional for most states norms (for example, liability for pimping, illegal acts on pornographic objects, vandalizing a grave, etc.) and not quite common ones (liability for incest, obtaining child prostitution services; cruel treatment of animals by a person responsible for the care, protection and welfare of animals, for training or veterinary care; vandalism; debauched actions in the form of exhibitionism, compelling to participate in making pornographic performances, etc.).
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