Pidgorodinsky V. Crimes against the honor and dignity of the individual (theoretical comparative legal research)

In the thesis, for the first time in Ukraine, a comprehensive special theoretical comparative legal study of the scientific and applied problems of the criminal law protection of the honor and dignity of the individual was carried out. The author’s own concept of Ukrainian criminal legislation aimed at protecting the honor and dignity of the individual has been developed. The dissertation discusses the general theoretical and methodological foundations of ensuring criminal law protection of the honor and dignity of the individual by means of a comparative analysis of the relevant legislation of other countries; the place of the domestic legal system as a component of the legal systems that emerged in continental Europe on the basis of Christian, Romano-Germanic and local legal traditions is established. The dissertation defines the concept, structure and elements of the objects of crimes against the honor and dignity of the individual; the honor and dignity of the individual are characterized as independent objects of criminal law protection that have fundamental substantial differences with the general provisions governing the criminal law protection of the non-property benefits of an individual, morality in society, the authority of the state, its bodies and officials; an acceptable position has been determined from the point of view of both European legal doctrine and the domestic legislator to determine the person’s honor, dignity and business reputation. Based on the analysis of socially dangerous acts against the honor and dignity of a person in the relevant legislation of other countries, signs are established that characterize the objective and subjective side of the elements of these crimes, the subjects of these socially dangerous acts; the possibility of criminalizing certain acts against the honor and dignity of the individual, in particular, slander and insult, with the corresponding criminal legal consequences; the concept and types of qualifying signs of crimes related to the encroachment on the honor and dignity of an individual in the criminal law of other countries are defined and these legal categories are compared with the corresponding categories in the criminal legislation of Ukraine; similar and distinctive privileged features of crimes related to the encroachment on the honor and dignity of the person are established in the criminal legislation of Ukraine and other countries; a restrictive-comparative analysis of crimes against the honor and dignity of the person from attacks on the honor and dignity of the person in other branches of the national legal system was carried out in order to identify certain trends and opportunities for complementing and using the experience of legislative regulation; established social conditionality, structure and types of sanctions for crimes against the honor and dignity of the individual in the legislation of Ukraine and other countries. Based on the analysis, the advantages and gaps in the norms on liability for harming the honor and dignity of the individual were identified, which made possible the scientific substantiation of theoretical provisions and proposed specific practical recommendations aimed at further development of the relevant legislation, making suggestions on improving the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and its practice application.