Методологічні аспекти розуміння верховенства права в Україні

Abstract

The ideal of the rule of law has long been an essential component of international legal instruments, especially on human and civil rights and freedoms. Modern realities of 2022 remind the world that without the rule of law at all political and legal levels and in all countries, the world can return to the barbaric way of resolving conflicts “who is stronger, that’s who is right”. The author`s experience of teaching of the discipline “Methodology of application and interpretation of the rule of law” for students of “Master” degree, shows some difficulties in students’ understanding of such a complex phenomenon as “rule of law”. In order to simplify its understanding at the initial stage of study, it proved methodologically appropriate, using the method of structural-genetic analysis and synthesis, to depict the rule of law as a pyramid consisting of principles and elements already studied by junior students. In this way, students systematize knowledge, focus on important aspects of already learned material and realize the need for acquired knowledge, “including” them into new material. One of the leading places is given to the principle of the rule of law in the Constitution of Ukraine (Article 8). Despite the acquisition of the rule of law as a global ideal, its concept, according to many Western jurists, still remains “essentially controversial”. The author presents a visual image of the rule of law, adapted to the Romano-Germanic legal family in the translation of certain terms, which facilitates its understanding. Taking into account the studied principles, the pyramid of the structure of the rule of law consists of the following elements, starting from the basic level, the so-called “foundation”: right to assemble, in Ukraine the freedom of peaceful assembly is analogous; democracy through formal legal processes - democratic procedures; access to justice; freedom of speech / press; right to silence; presumption of innocence; fair trial & independence of judiciary; citizens and government are accountable by the law (responsible before the law); equality before the law. The analysis of structural elements and visual representation of the pyramid of “rule of law” is the purpose of this scientific article. This methodological approach has proven itself in teaching the theoretical foundations of the rule of law and to help students master this complex phenomenon.