Serhiichuk V. Disclosure of a state secret: criminal law and criminological characteristics

The dissertation research is a complex and systematic scientific research of the crime – disclosure of a state secret. The history of criminal-legal protection of a state secret on Ukrainian lands was analysed. It was stated that the criminal-legal protection of a state secret has undergone a difficult path of development since the time of Kievan Rus till nowadays. As a result of the analysis the concept of a state secret in the times of Kievan Rus, the definition of protection of information constituting a state secret in the times of Kievan Rus and the characteristics of a state secret of that time, the list of information that was a state secret in the times of Cossacks and Hetmanate, the XIX – early XX century, and during the period when Ukraine was a part of the USSR were formulated. For the first time, the criminal measures of state secrets protection in the countries such as Estonia, France, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Moldova and Belarus were analysed in complex and compared to the criminal law protection of a state secret in Ukraine. As a result of the analysis, common and distinctive peculiarities of the legal provisions of the criminal codes of these states regarding the system of state secrets protection were analysed, and also indicated some legal provisions that should be incorporated into our national legislation in this sphere.