Challenges of Harmonizing International and National Criminal Legislation of Ukraine

Abstract

The study aims to analyze the main challenges of harmonizing international and national criminal legislation of Ukraine, to recognize the main legal and institutional barriers that influenced this process. The study was based on the application of doctrinal legal analysis and the comparative law method. This made it possible to analyze international legal acts, provisions of the criminal legislation of Ukraine, and modern scientific approaches to the interaction of international and national criminal law. The results of the study demonstrated that the harmonization process was characterized by several interrelated challenges, including regulatory gaps between international standards and national criminal legislation, institutional restrictions in the implementation of international legal norms, and difficulties in the practical application of the principles of international criminal law in the national legal system. The study also emphasized the growing influence of European integration processes on the modernization of criminal legislation, and the separate development of mechanisms for harmonizing national legal norms with European and international standards. The conclusions show that effective harmonization required legislative changes, as well as the separate development of the institutional capacity of the criminal system.