“Pravova derzhava”. Issue 36 (2025), pages 15–24.

DOI: 10.33663/0869-2491-2025-36-15-24

Onishchenko Natalia
Legality and legislation: spheres of cross-sectoral influence

In the conditions of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the category of «legislation» requires significant changes: updating, stopping duplication, increasing efficiency and quality, etc. Special attention of the scientific community is focused on the issues related to the category of «legality». With one hundred percent certainty, we can state that the quality of our life is connected, on the one hand, with the quality of legislation in the broad sense of its understanding, and on the other hand, with compliance with regulatory requirements (regime, state of legality), which is established and operates in the relevant spatial and temporal dimensions.

The issue of cross-sectoral interaction between the phenomena of «legislation» and «legality» became particularly “sounding” in the article.

It is understandable that today civil communities, more than ever, seek to improve legislative provisions in order to increase their effectiveness. However, reflecting on these and similar processes, we can state with one hundred percent certainty that the question of the doctrinal correlations of many proposed forms, methods, approaches, etc. to the consideration of this issue is acute.

And this can be explained as follows: for more than thirty years (the period of independent Ukraine), doctrinalists have been actively offering one or another «recipe» for improving the legislative process: working groups on these issues have worked and are working, dozens of monographs and hundreds of article publications have been written. However (although, without denying certain successes and achievements), we must still state the need to develop new directions, both doctrinal and practical, that will correspond to the realities of today.

And, as we have already noted, it is quite understandable that we pay attention to the above-mentioned studies (after all, according to the most understandable formula), the quality of our future life will depend not least on the quality of legislation, legislative provisions of the peacebuilding process, and the adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to EU legislation. Therefore, deducing the thesis about improving legislation (streamlining, increasing efficiency, overcoming gaps and overcoming duplications), I would like to draw “certain lines of contact” between legislation, as a phenomenon of social reality, and legality, as a fundamental criterion (regime, state) for assessing the legal life of society.

The purpose of the article is to focus the attention of the doctrinal community and the practical community on the need for a mutually agreed, mutually beneficial consideration of the functioning of the phenomena of «legislation» and «legality» in the context of their interference development.

In the aforementioned context, I would like to emphasize the following: today, in the format of theoretical and applied legal research, it is important to understand the «cross-sectorality» of the categories of «legality» and «legislation», their interrelation and intersection.

It is especially necessary to emphasize that upon closer examination, we can conclude that for the effective functioning of the legal system, interference, «coexistence, mutual agreement and interpenetration of the categories «legislation» and legality» are necessary. At the same time, we would like to emphasize that today, in theoretical monographic materials, the consideration of the principle of «legality» in state and legal realities is of particular importance. It is stated that it is in no way «canceled», but is supplemented by other legitimate principles, in particular, such as the effectiveness and quality of legislation. Therefore, criticism of legal positivism should not lead to the «cancelation» of the principle of legality.

The latter statement is of particular importance in the context of the development of Ukraine’s defense and security policy in accordance with the Treaty on European Union.

Key words: legality, legislation, regulations, legal regulation, interference, interaction of the categories of «legality» and «legislation».

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