Theoretical aspects of qualification of armed conflict

The question is considered, which aims to establish the main types of armed conflict and to determine the types of armed conflicts in international law, as well as when this or that act of the state will be considered aggression, armed attack or armed conflict, or not. It is indicated that the analysis of modern international relations shows that humanity has not yet managed to get rid of wars and other armed conflicts, which are mostly armed conflicts of a non-international nature. This is evidenced by the events in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia, and the Caucasus, and since 2014, Ukraine has not been an exception, the international armed conflict on whose territory has grown from February 24, 2022 into a full-scale war waged by the Russian Federation on the scale of which Europe has not knew since the Second World War. It is noted that modern international relations are characterized by a change in the nature of the conflict, the emergence of a number of new categories and situations, an increase in the number of victims among the civilian population, and an increasing internationalization of armed conflicts of a non-international nature. In this regard, the question of the qualification of various types of armed conflicts is extremely relevant, especially in the context of the ongoing full-scale war waged by Russia against Ukraine. The author pays special attention to the provisions of the statute of the International Criminal Court and the statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which essentially form the modern doctrine of criminal responsibility for war crimes and the crime of genocide. The article highlights the provisions and the author’s assessment regarding the prerequisites for proper qualification, because the prerequisite for proper qualification is a deep study and understanding by a person who applies the rules of law, the principles of international humanitarian law, international state policy, international judicial and investigative practice; correct clarification and interpretation of the content of the international agreement, determination of the limits of the selected norm in time, space and by the number of persons, as well as establishing all its features; collection and analysis of evidence in the case, full and comprehensive establishment of the actual signs of the armed conflict; application of qualification rules developed by theory and practice, with a justified combination of the signs of an armed conflict established by international law with the signs of a committed act. An important place in the work is covered by the theoretical analysis of the term qualification.