Application of criminal law measures as a legal institution

The article highlights the issues of application of criminal law measures as an independent regulatory and legal institution which has a cross-sectoral nature. This institute is complex, since it includes two sub-institutes – criminal law and criminal procedure, and is characterized by its subject matter and method of legal regulation, and is intended to regulate social relations which arose in connection with the introduction in Ukraine of the institute of quasi-criminal liability of legal entities for the fulfillment of Ukraine’s international obligations. The author suggests that a regulatory legal institution should be set out in a standardized manner in various legal acts. Unlike the criminal law sub-institution of application of criminal law measures, criminal procedural rules are «scattered» throughout the text of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine, which impedes the effective application of the relevant rules. The analysis of the few verdicts that have imposed criminal legal measures on legal entities indicates that, given both the normative shortcomings in the presentation of criminal procedural rules of the institution of application of criminal legal measures and the actual lack of training of interested parties (investigators, prosecutors, judges, lawyers) in specialized educational institutions, this leads to shortcomings in law enforcement and the actual ineffectiveness of the institution as a whole. The author finds that when applying criminal law measures to a legal entity, courts made the following mistakes: they did so independently, without following the procedure for initiating proceedings against a legal entity regulated by criminal procedure legislation; in criminal proceedings against an individual, they approved a plea agreement with a criminal law measure against a legal entity when it was prohibited to do so. The author proposes to conduct specialized training on criminal law and criminal procedural features of quasi-criminal liability of legal entities in Ukraine for investigators, prosecutors, attorneys and judges.