UKRAINE – A MARITIME STATE: A CONCEPT OF LEGAL PERSONHOOD IN THE CONTEXT OF LEGAL (MARITIME) DOCTRINE

Abstract

The article researches the concept of legal personhood in the context of Legal (Maritime) Doctrine of Ukraine as a maritime state. The author points out the existence of various scientific studies that concern definition, context, and depth of the legal personhood notion. However, there is no single generally accepted meaning of it. This greatly complicates the formation of the legal personhood concept in the context of Legal (Maritime) Doctrine of Ukraine as a maritime state. The above said, according to the author, should be regarded as a lack of legal justification, namely the want of legal general theoretical basis for its formation and implementation, including conceptual legal provisions. This defines the relevance of the study conducted in the article. According to the results, the author forms meaning of the definition, context, and depth of the state’s legal personhood notion. He concludes that Ukraine, after joining United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982, as an independent and sovereign state acquired certain rights, duties, and responsibilities in the sphere of marine environment development. Thus, it acquired (as a particular collective law entity with general and special capacity) sectoral ‘maritime’ (including international maritime) capacity (as a subject of legal maritime relations, including ‘state-participant’ of the Convention status). It also acquired provisions of the full-fledged participant of the international maritime law (a legal order for the seas and oceans) for realization of the state functions (its social purposes main vectors, tasks, and goals) in the process of marine environment development as an object of state influence and delictual capacity (tort) as an ability to bear legal responsibility for illegal actions and its negative consequences, in particular, to be a defendant in law suits in international (international maritime) jurisdictional bodies. The author marks the scientific necessity and proposes to include the legal personhood concept in the process of formation and implementation of Legal (Maritime) Doctrine of Ukraine as a maritime state.