The influence of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the resolution of certain categories of criminal cases

It is indicated that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, being the only body of constitutional jurisdiction in the state, performs a key function in guaranteeing the supremacy of the Basic Law and protecting human rights and freedoms. The legal positions formulated by the Court in its decisions and conclusions acquire fundamental importance for the functioning of the entire legal system, because they outline the constitutionally acceptable boundaries of the interpretation and application of regulatory legal acts. At the same time, it is the sphere of criminal proceedings, where the issue of restricting the rights of the individual arises most acutely, demonstrates the special importance of the acts of the body of constitutional jurisdiction, since it is in criminal proceedings that constitutional guarantees of human rights are most severely tested in practice. The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the influence of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on the resolution of certain categories of criminal cases. The legalnature of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine as a key element of the national legal system, which ensures the unity of interpretation and application of constitutional norms by all subjects of legal relations, is analyzed. It is established that despite the absence of a legal definition of this concept in the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, legal positions have an established doctrinal justification and perform a quasi-normative function, obliging all participants in legal relations to be guided by constitutional and legal interpretation. The peculiarities of the influence of acts of a body of constitutional jurisdiction on criminal proceedings are studied, where the issues of restricting the rights and freedoms of an individual are the most acute, and constitutional guarantees are subject to the strictest practical verification. It is substantiated that courts of general jurisdiction, when administering justice, are obliged to take into account the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine when qualifying acts, determining the limits of criminal liability and ensuring the procedural rights of participants in criminal proceedings. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine dated December 29, 1999 No. 11-rp/99 on the recognition of the death penalty as unconstitutional as a defining example of the influence of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on criminal law and the humanization of the criminal policy of the state in general. It is proved that this decision, based on the provisions of Articles 3, 21, 22, 27 of the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as on European standards for the protection of human rights, not only completed the fulfillment of Ukraine’s obligations to the Council of Europe, but also laid the foundation for the further development of humanistic principles in criminal law, which was reflected in the adoption of the new Criminal Code of Ukraine in 2001 without the death penalty among the types of punishment.