The President of Ukraine as a multifaceted state and legal phenomenon: doctrinal approaches to understanding

Abstract

In preparing this article the author has set out to substantiate the thesis about the multifaceted phenomenon of the President of Ukraine as a phenomenon of state and legal reality, which necessarily requires enrichment of the content of the same concept. The analysis of scientists’ judgments revealing the content of the concept under study, gives grounds to conclude that the President of Ukraine is a complex socio-legal phenomenon, and therefore a comprehensive picture of this phenomenon can be obtained only as a result of its multifaceted consideration: - from the point of view of the theory of the mechanism of the state, the President of Ukraine is an important element of the state apparatus - a single, elected, supreme body of the state, which has general competence. This aspect is somewhat contradictory regarding that state bodies are usually established as legal entities that cannot be said about the head of the Ukrainian state; - in terms of a certain constitutional and legal status he/she is the head of the state and acts on its behalf. A significant clarification of this judgment is the thesis about the President of Ukraine as a legal form of the head of state, who is elected by the people and receives power for a fixed term by delegation. As for the recognition of his/her highest official, we consider the relevant judgment to some extent conditional and evaluative, because in the national legal doctrine and current legislation the issue of the hierarchical system of officials in Ukraine is not yet developed; - from the point of view of ontology (of his/her being, existence) the President of Ukraine is an individual who has reached at least 35 years of age. A significant shortcoming of the current legislation is a rather limited, in our opinion, set of requirements for a candidate for this elected position, and in the future, in case of winning the election, describe the current head of state. The legislator did not envisage as a condition for the emergence of constitutional and legal relations, within which a citizen of Ukraine can be elected President of Ukraine, or the fact of higher education (in epistemological terms, the President of Ukraine must be an active subject of knowledge, because it is cognitive capabilities provide him/her to gain higher education; it should be noted that the President is both an object of knowledge of the social sciences, most of which study the impact of this institution on various social processes and are designed to increase its effectiveness in a constantly changing environment. At the same time some them (history, history of the state and law) explore his/her personality, achievements, personal role in society, neither he/she has significant experience of professional activity, nor the recognition of a high level of his/her competence as a professional in general, nor he/she has high moral qualities; - in terms of the system of constitutional law the President of Ukraine is a constitutional and legal institution, the rules of which determine: 1) the place and role of the head of state in the state mechanism and its relationship with other state bodies; 2) the procedure for substituting this position; 3) functions and powers of the head of state; 4) his/her responsibility for treason or other crime; - in terms of doctrine and practice of public administration, the head of state is one of the most im-portant elements of the modern system of public administration. He/she converges large volumes of infor-mation flows from other elements of this system. Analysis of information, development of management decisions and control over their implementation - these are the main President’s functions in this system; - in terms of the attitude to this constitutional and legal institution and the personality of the head of state by society and government institutions, the President of Ukraine is an honorary title protected by law and retained for his/her life, unless the President of Ukraine was removed from office by impeachment.