Theoretical and Methodological Problems of Modern International Criminal Law

The article reveals a complex of theoretical and methodological issues inherent in the research of the problems of legal regulation of the criminal responsibility for the most serious and internationally dangerous crimes. The range of problems affects methodological, historical, international, and criminal law aspects. The object of the study was a complex of criminal law relations arising from the nature of internationally dangerous acts. In the study, the following general scientific methods were used: analysis, synthesis, system-structural; the following specific scientific methods were used: formal and legal analysis, comparative historical, expert assessment. In the article, a number of conclusions are obtained. In the Russian theory of law, two criteria are used to distinguish between branches of law: the subject and the method of legal regulation. With their account, international criminal law cannot be recognized as part of national criminal law. One cannot also agree that the structure of this branch of law contains norms of both international and national criminal law. The norms of national and international law influence each other, but do not lose their independence. International legal norms formulated under the influence of national law, after they are enshrined in international sources, receive an international character. On the contrary, international norms implemented in national legislation become domestic norms. The constitutional control over the decisions of interstate bodies and the priority of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in relation to international law is an affirmation of Russia's sovereignty in international relations. It is reasonable and necessary to include extracts from the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal as an appendix to textbooks on international criminal law. The publication of the materials of the judgement of the Nuremberg Tribunal has an important educational, and therefore preventive, value, primarily for young people, who do not know enough about world history. The limitations of this knowledge often lead some of them to the dock on charges of rehabilitating Nazism. The current international situation shows that, at present, it is not possible to prevent international conflicts (including regional ones) with the help of legal norms and the threat of bringing perpetrators to international responsibility. But this does not diminish the significance of international treaties on combating corruption, terrorism, drug trafficking, and other crimes of an international nature. The final conclusion is the provision that the priority of national legislation in the criminal law sphere is an inseparable attribute of the legal sovereignty of any state, especially if it claims to be a world power.

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