Liability for the encroachment on the activities of judges under the legislation of some states of the EU

Abstract

The article analyzes the criminal laws of some member states of the European Union in terms of the reflection of criminal offenses related to the encroachment on the activities of judges. In particular, the criminal laws of the countries characterized by the highest Rule of Law Index Scored by Criminal Justice in 2023 were studied: the Republic of Finland, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Republic of Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Estonia, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The conducted research allowed to compare the criminal law regulation of the relevant sphere of public relations in Ukraine and the above-mentioned states and to make some suggestions for improvement of the current Criminal Code of Ukraine in the analyzed part.
It is found out that the criminal legislation of the Republic of Finland, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Sweden, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands does not contain any special norms on the encroachment on the activities of judges, and “influence” on judges due to their activities is being qualified as an encroachment in a particular form on the activities of a public official. The criminal laws of the Republic of Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany provide for special norms on certain forms of encroachment on judges of certain courts only, who are named as victims in the same articles along with other special victims. Only the criminal laws of the Republic of Estonia and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg contain special norms on certain forms of encroachment on the activities of judges, but these norms mention judges together with other special victims.
The fact that none of the analyzed criminal laws of the European Union member states with the highest Rule of Law Index Scored by Criminal Justice has separate norms on the encroachment on the activities of judges exclusively (the judge is either not directly identified as a victim at all, or may be directly mentioned in a particular article of the criminal law, but alongside other special victims), allows us to express doubts about the expediency of having special norms on the encroachment on the activities of judges in the current Criminal Code of Ukraine.