Problems of the legal status of military administrations

Abstract

The article examines the grounds and procedure for the formation of military administrations on the basis of local state administrations in the context of the legal regime of martial law. The legislative and encyclopedic definition of the term «military administration» is provided. Various approaches to the interpretation of legislation in the field of local self-government and the legal regime of martial law are analyzed using the example of the order of the head of the Chervonograd District Military Administration to terminate the powers of the district council. The innovations in the legislation of Ukraine that came into force after February 24, 2022 and concern military administrations and local self-government bodies are described. The differences in the formation of military administrations at the level of oblasts, districts, and settlements were analyzed; the role of military administrations during the war. The need for a clearer demarcation of the powers of military administrations, their chiefs and local self-government bodies and heads of communities was revealed. The article identifies common features of military and military-civilian administrations. The article also examines the legal status of military administrations in the context of the ratio of functions and responsibilities of local self- government bodies, which are not clearly demarcated and not regulated by law. This situation endangers the achievements of the decentralization reform in the context of the decentralization of powers and responsibilities. However, the existing legal status of military administrations, despite the challenges and problems described in the material, allows them to perform tasks related to the real preservation of life and health of the residents of communities. The work also raises the dubiousness of the legislative formulation of the grounds for terminating the authority of a local self-government body, as «actual failure to exercise authority», which is an assessment category without defined criteria for actual failure to exercise authority. The lack of detail, the non-fulfillment of which scope of authority is the reason for the termination of authority creates the conditions for the manual one-man decision by the President on the formation of a military administration.