PECULIARITIES OF STATUTORY REGULATION OF CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS BY THE GERMAN OCCUPATION ADMINISTRATION ON THE TERRITORY OF MODERN CHERNIHIV AND SUMY REGIONS (1941–1943)

Abstract

The article states that together with the occupation, the Nazi leaders faced the need for regulatory and legal regulation of social relations in the local environment, including purely criminal ones. The situation with the increase in crime at the initial stage of the occupation was resolved exclusively by forceful, repressive and punitive means, and it is undeniable that there were no legal processes involved. But later, it became clear that all these processes need to be regulated not only by repressive and punitive, but also by legitimate civilized methods, because along with serious crimes, the vast majority of local residents were also taught minor offenses. Since these crimes did not pose a great public danger, their consideration was delegated to local criminal courts or transferred to authorized structures and officials of local government bodies. And their activities had to be regulated by normative legal acts, which had to be created. The article notes that some domestic researchers, such as O. Honcharenko, A. Ivanenko, N. Kolisnyk, were engaged in the research of criminal justice and the legal framework for the conduct of criminal justice in the occupied territory of Ukraine. However, the mentioned publications are not territorially limited exclusively to the territory of the military zone occupation, but also the territory of the Reichskommissariat ‘Ukraine’, in addition, in terms of scope, not only the criminal branch of law, but also the civil one. In the conclusions, the author notes that in the areas of responsibility of the field commanders, their own regulatory and legal acts were created, which regulated the relevant legal relations in the local society. In addition, unlike the Reichskommissariat ‘Ukraine’, the German managers delegated the right to initiate the creation of a regulatory framework to local authorities, of course, carefully checking and authorizing its publication. The regulatory base in the military zone of occupation, which included the territories defined by the geographical boundaries of this study (Chernihiv and Sumy regions), did not have a stable appearance, it was constantly being improved, due to which the legal sanctions laid down in it could differ significantly.