Customs Formalities for Foreign Warships, Their Arms and Crews in the Ukrainian Ports

Abstract

The article is devoted to determining the current state and ways to improve the legal regulation of customs formalities for foreign warships, their arms and crews in the Ukrainian ports. The relevance of the research topic is due to the need to find the optimal model of legal regulation for such activities in Ukraine as the state port and the fragmentation of current legal research in the field of custom port formalities. The purpose of the article is to define the current state of organizational and legal regulation for the implementation of customs formalities for foreign warships, their arms and crews in the Ukrainian seaports, outlining possible ways to update and improve it. The methodological basis of the research is formed by general scientific and special legal methods of scientific knowledge (dialectical, analysis and synthesis, scientific abstraction, forecasting). The task of the article is to develop proposals for improving the legal regulation of customs formalities applicable to foreign warships in the Ukrainian ports. The article characterizes and analyzes the provisions of law, regulations and local acts in force in the Ukrainian seaports. It is noted that the current legislation of Ukraine, according to the established practice of navigation and customary norms embodied in international treaties, defines a special procedure for customs formalities in respect of foreign warships, their arms and crews. The characteristic feature of such legislation is that almost identical rules on such formalities are placed in different normative acts of different legal force. This specifies the necessity to develop a universal normative document that would define all aspects of entry, stay and leaving the inland waters for foreign warships, in particular to the waters of the Ukrainian seaports.