PROBLEMS OF THE QUALIFICATION OF ILLEGAL CARRYING OF A KNIFE, RECOGNIZED BY THE OPINION OF AN EXPERT WITH A COLD WEAPON: ASPECTS OF DECRIMINALIZATION

Abstract

The article examines two problems with the use of cold weapons. The first problem concerns the issue of bringing to criminal responsibility persons who, according to part 2 of art. 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine were detained by law enforcement agencies for carrying knives without the permission required by law. The problem is characterized by the fact that in order to make a decision regarding the guilt of the accused under part 2 of art. 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, only an expert opinion that a knife belongs to a cold weapon is not enough for the court. It is pointed out the ineffectiveness of the presumption of knowledge of the legislation in the case of bringing to criminal responsibility under part 2 of art. 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, because there is no law in Ukraine that would clearly define the criteria for carrying knives that belong to cold weapons. The second problem is that the criminal legislation of Ukraine does not take into account the public danger from the use of knives that do not fall under the category of edged weapons, because it is not necessary to use a knife that belongs to the type of edged weapon for the unlawful infliction of bodily harm, in this case bodily harm can be applied even with a kitchen or clerical knife. In order to relieve the system of pre-trial investigation due to the rather complicated procedure of bringing a person to criminal responsibility under part 2 of art. 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and in order to decriminalize knives, we propose to remove part 2 of art. 263 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine all types of knives as a type of cold weapon. Instead, we propose to increase the liability for any criminal offenses if the accused committed them with a knife, even one that does not fall under the characteristics of a cold weapon. For this purpose, we consider it expedient to include proposals in the draft Law of Ukraine “On the Right to Civil Weapons” regarding the recognition of any knife as a cold weapon in case of its intentional use by the accused to commit a criminal offense.