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Vol. 44 (2024)
General Articles

The Long-awaited Breakthrough Legislation – Changes in Ukrainian Criminal Law Due to the Ratification of the Rome Statute

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  • Hanna Kuczyńska,
  • Andriy Kosylo
Hanna Kuczyńska
Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Published 2025-11-14

Keywords

  • International Criminal Court,
  • international criminal law,
  • crimes against humanity,
  • criminal law of Ukraine,
  • command responsibility

How to Cite

The Long-awaited Breakthrough Legislation – Changes in Ukrainian Criminal Law Due to the Ratification of the Rome Statute. (2025). Polish Yearbook of International Law, 44, 87-111. https://doi.org/10.24425/PYIL.2025.156716

Abstract

Despite the fact that the Russian aggression against Ukraine has been 
ongoing since 2014, Ukrainian legislation establishing criminal responsibility for 
international crimes had not been fully in line with international standards for 
a long time. After many years of negotiations and overcoming many obstacles, the Law 
of Ukraine “On amendments to the Criminal and the Criminal Procedure Codes of 
Ukraine in connection with the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International 
Criminal Court and its amendments” of 9 October 2024 entered into force on 24 Oc
tober 2024. This signifies that the Ukrainian material criminal law has introduced 
internationally recognised categories and elements of international crimes. In this 
article we analyse whether it is true that international standards regarding the ele
ments of international crimes have been fully introduced, and to what extent the new 
legislation fulfils the goals of international criminal law – in particular, whether it 
sufficiently implements the standards established in the Rome Statute. This analysis 
indicates several elements that still could be improved in the area of Ukrainian ma
terial criminal law when it comes to the definitions of international crimes.

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