Restoration of criminal justice and introduction of transitional justice in the conditions of restoration of territorial integrity of Ukraine and reintegration of Donbas

Description. The purpose of the article is to determine the most optimal mechanisms for restoration of Ukrainian criminal justice in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions as part of the implementation of transitional justice in the mentioned territories. Methodology. The system-structural method and the method of formal and logical analysis have been applied to determine the main steps to the restoration of criminal justice in some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The comparative and legal method was used to analyze the foreign legal practice of resolving armed conflicts and adapting best practices to Ukrainian realities. As a result of the research it has been found that the main steps to the restoration of criminal justice in the reintegrated territories are: adaptation of the criminal and criminal procedural legislation of Ukraine in accordance with international agreements on the reintegration of the Donbas; renewal of criminal proceedings for crimes which, for various reasons, have not been completed and left in the temporarily occupied territories; identifying and organizing information on the offences that fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court; organization of investigation of crimes committed during the occupation; investigations into the causes of death of persons, who died in temporarily occupied territories. Practical implications. The main aspects of implementation of transitional criminal justice as one of the measures aimed at returning temporarily occupied certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to the Ukrainian legal field were examined and analyzed. Value / originality. Restoration of criminal justice in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is the most difficult aspect of the issue of returning the reintegrated territories to the legal field of Ukraine, so the authors proposed the most effective ways to accomplish this task.