War is a complex social phenomenon and is characterized by numerous social, economic, financial, environmental, political, informational, and military signs The military component forms the meaning of war, shapes the meanings of this social phenomenon and forces one to turn to the law – the only opponent capable of limiting the spread in the social space of the factors of war that are destructive to the existence of humanity. Terrorism is an equally complex social phenomenon, the illegal signs of which are directly realized during terrorist activities.

The purpose of the article is to determine the legal content of war and the essence of terrorism, the peculiarities of the legal assessment of aggressive war, state terrorism, the legal qualification of crimes against peace, human security, the international legal order and crimes of terrorism under national legislation and international law. Research into the nature of war and terrorism in legal science is usually carried out separately without combining problematic aspects that arise in social practice and require an answer. The transition from worldview, general theoretical problems posed to mankind by war and terrorism to specifically legal ones definitely confirms the scientific position on the need to use the developments of the science of international law, primarily international humanitarian law with a view to the implementation of the norms of international law into national legislation, where perhaps the main one in addition to security aspects, criminal law aspects are revealed. Another, no less important aspect that forces us to turn to the problem of the legal definition of war and terrorism, the qualification of the corresponding acts, is the problem of state terrorism, which was significantly actualized during the aggressive war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. Therefore, the relevance and necessity of researching the legal qualification of the activities of socialactors, subjects during war and terrorist activities, when such activities are combined, having both common and distinctive features, are natural. The qualification of illegal acts related to the violation of the laws and customs of war, the commission of the crime of aggression, crimes against humanity and criminal offenses that constitute the content of terrorism has a different legal nature, despite the unity of certain objective signs during an armed conflict. Such a difference is important for solving the tasks of national justice in accordance with the provisions of national criminal legislation and at the same time it is manifested in the definition of the relevant components of crimes in international criminal law, which is important for achieving the goal of justice, ensuring the inevitability of punishment for committed crimes, for maintaining the international legal order.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Repetskyi V, Lysyk V, Mizhnarodne humanitarne pravo: pidruchnyk (Znannia 2007) (in Ukrainian).

Edited books

2. Johan M.G. van der Dennen, ‘On War: Concepts, Definitions, Research Data – a Short Literature Review and Bibliography’ in UNESCO Yearbook on Peace and Conflict Studies 1980 (Greenwood Press 1981) (in English).

3. Stanton Jessica, ‘Terrorism, Civil War, and Insurgency’ in Erica Chenoweth and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism (Oxford Handbooks 2019) <https://doi. org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198732914.013.20> (in English).

4. Kolodii A, Kryvenko O, V Pashynskyi (red), Viiskove pravo Ukrainy: pidruchnyk (NUOU im Ivana Cherniakhovskoho, 2019) (in Ukrainian).

Journal articles

5. Korynevych A, Korotkyi T, ‘Spetsialnyi trybunal shchodo zlochynu ahresii proty Ukrainy: Realpolitik proty nevidvorotnosti pokarannia za zlochyn ahresii’ (2022) 2 Ukrainskyi chasopys mizhnarodnoho prava 39–42 (in Ukrainian).

6. Kudinov S, ‘Derzhavnyi teroryzm – vyznachennia ta kharakterystyka’ (2022) 2 Informatsiia i pravo 80–4 (in Ukrainian).

7. Patsurkivskyi P, Havryliuk R, ‘Pravova pryroda finansuvannia Rosiieiu mizhderzhavnoho teroryzmu ta yii viiny proty Ukrainy’ (2022) 71 Naukovyi visnyk Uzhhorodskoho natsionalnoho universytetu. Seriia Pravo 275 (in Ukrainian).

Websites

8. Sikkink Kathryn, ‘Using the 1933 Soviet Definition of Aggression to Condemn Russia Today’ (Just Security, 24.05.2022) <https://www.justsecurity.org/81629/using-the1933-soviet-definition-of-aggression-to-condemn-russia-today> (accessed: 30.08.2022) (in English).