Annotation

Purpose. This article examines the approach taken by international law to the issue of the minimum age of criminal responsibility. It compares the positions of national and international law regarding the age at which a person may be considered a child, as well as capable of committing a crime. It describes the approach taken by the International Criminal Court and international criminal tribunals and provides some examples of the court practice. Methodology: in preparing the study, the author used a combination of scientific cognition methods: dialectical, comparative-legal, system-structural, and the method of formal logic, including analysis and synthesis. Conclusions. Within the framework of a comparative legal analysis of the norms of international humanitarian law and the norms of international criminal law, the existence of a “gray zone” has been identified — namely, the possibility for a person to participate in an armed conflict from the age of 15 without falling under the jurisdiction of international criminal justice bodies. Scientific and practical relevance. To eliminate this “gray zone,” proposals have been made for a regulatory solution to this problem — in terms of developing a unified approach to determining.