Legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine: analysis of legal doctrine

Abstract

It is indicated that constitutional control is defined as one of the main elements of legal protection of the constitution. The difficulty of defining its nature is expressed in the ambiguity of approaches among scientists regarding the analysis of this concept. The science of constitutional law distinguishes two approaches to the understanding of constitutional control – broad and narrow. The authors note that, summarizing the specified formulations, it can be argued that they reflect only one of the aspects of understanding constitutional control – from the point of view of the functional approach. That is, to a greater extent,the emphasis is placed on checking the constitutionality of laws and other acts. In the understanding of the authors, supporters of the functional approach, constitutional control is only constitutional regulatory control.The research presented in the work gives grounds for the conclusion that the issue of clarifying the legal nature of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is ambiguous and has not yet been resolved. This is connected, first of all, with a complex and multifaceted understanding of the role, status and place of the body of constitutional jurisdiction in the system of state authorities. The absence of a legislative definition of this concept does not contribute to clarifying the nature of the Court’s legal positions. Despite this, the term is actively used both by the Court in its decisions and by the scientific community in order to reflect the arguments that determine the position of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on law enforcementissues. Legal positions also acquire normative mandatory content, which follows from the form of expression in which they are reflected – acts of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. At the same time, legal positions can be expressed both in the motivating and in the resolutive part of the decision. The need to ensure the immutability of the Court’s legal positions is a continuation of the principle of legal certainty and stability of the Constitution as the Basic Law of Ukraine. However, the question of the possibility of revision of legal positions by the Constitutional Court becomes more urgent in connection with the partial politicalinvolvement of the Court in the previous years of its activity, which requires revision of certain positions due to changes in the socio-political structure of the state. The outlined question, along with others, is definitely an additional subject of a separate scientific study.