Criminal Liability for State Treason: Domestic and Foreign Experience

The article examines the issue of criminal liability for state treason based on the domestic and foreign experience of certain countries.

The conducted research allows us to conclude that the problem of state treason remains relevant in a number of foreign countries as well. However, for Ukraine, since the beginning of its modern formation as an independent state, amidst the ongoing war by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, and especially in the conditions of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the issue of state treason and the establishment of proper criminal responsibility for committing such a crime has become extremely acute.

Consideration of the issue of normative-legal regulation of criminal liability for state treason in Ukraine and certain foreign countries, such as the United States of America, the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, France, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Belgium, Spain, and Georgia, allows for further exploration of the effective counteraction to this crime.

Attention is drawn to the fact that in the criminal legislation of some countries, unlike Ukraine, there are no special grounds for exemption from criminal liability for state treason. In these cases, the legislator is either strict towards individuals who commit the respective crime or there is a possibility that exempting individuals from criminal responsibility may create a sense of impunity.

In order to avoid problematic issues in the application of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in practice and taking into account the existing real threats to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability, defense capability, state, economic, or information security of Ukraine, it is proposed to consider the possibility of expanding the objective side of state treason at the legislative level, namely the list of forms in which it can manifest and the list of subjects of state treason.