The principle: “No punishment without the law” in small steps destroys the rolled back police tradition of piling up indicators on the article “illegal possession of weapons”, without, in fact, such a law.
However, recently the SBU officers received conclusion of the specialists of the Department of Criminal Law of the University. Yaroslav the Wise, according to which the term “law” can be used in the sense of “instructions”.
We have sent several letters from the UAWZ to the departments and directly to the rector of the university whether they really believe that:
- the law may be interpreted as a subordinate act, in particular an instruction;
- a special part of the law on criminal liability establishes certain prohibitions and restrictions on the legal regime of property, in particular on such things as weapons;
- legal order in the matter of bringing to criminal responsibility is based on the principle “everything that is not allowed is prohibited”.
We have not received an answer. Only the Department of Constitutional Law wrote that it is unethical to address them directly.
In general, the combination looks very interesting: the head of the investigation of the Security Service of Ukraine in Kharkiv region, having studied for 4-5 years to become a lawyer, probably turns to his alma mater and … asks (after how many years of study) to explain to him what the term “law” in Art. 92 of the Constitution, art. 178 of the Civil Code and Art. 263 of the Criminal Code. And he gets the answer that the term “law” can be used in different meanings, in particular, in the meaning of “instructions”.
It is very strange that there were no young specialists at the university who would openly object to this. Because “law” can be considered “instruction” only in one sense – “totalitarian”.
UAWLE, in its turn, appealed to the real authorities in the field of law, retired judges of the Constitutional Court – Viktor Ivanovich Shyshkin and Petro Bogdanovich Stetsyuk. Recall that these are the judges who had the courage to protest when the CCU helped Yanukovych to usurp power.
Therefore, we publish the opinion of retired judges of the CCU, who prove that the “law” is the “law”, and not any other normative act. And the term “law” in the Constitution, the Civil Code and the Criminal Code are identical.
In general, the opinion of the judges will be interesting for many legal practitioners.
So, we can only thank Viktor Ivanovich and Petro Bogdanovich for their opinion, we hope it will help to get rid of the chaos in law-making and law enforcement practice that exists today.
We recommend that students and lawyers familiarize themselves with the requirements for the principle of nulla poena sine lege as the main principle of criminal law and the basis of the rule of law in general.
P.S. For our part, we thank all the donors who continue to support the legal struggle for the right to armed protection.
Author: Vitaliy Kolomiets
Attorneys at law “Orekhovskyi and Kolomiets”