CONCEPT AND CONTENT OF LEGAL REGULATION OF MILITARY SERVICE IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article reveals the concept and content of the legal regulation of military service in Ukraine through a combination of theoretical-legal and normative approaches. The multiplicity of meanings of the categorical definition of the term “service” is demonstrated, and the expediency of its comprehensive understanding is substantiated. This understanding presupposes a person’s holding of military positions in the Armed Forces and other security and defense forces of Ukraine, as well as the performance of military duty in various forms (by contract, through mobilization), which reflects the public-law nature of the relevant relations and their connection with the constitutional duty to defend the state. The general principles of legal regulation of social relations are highlighted as the ordering of participants’ behavior through legal means, with emphasis on its systemic character, formal certainty, enforcement by state coercion, and staged nature, encompassing the formation of the normative framework, the emergence of subjective rights and obligations, and their implementation. Attention is focused on the distinction between normative and individual legal regulation, as well as on the role of permission, obligation, and prohibition as methods for establishing the boundaries of lawful behavior. The understanding of military service as a form of state service of a special nature and as professional activity of persons fit by health and age is substantiated, being connected with the defense of the country, its independence, and territorial integrity, with identification of the specific features of the legal status of persons undergoing such service. The content of military duty is generalized as a set of interrelated stages and conditions, including preparation for service, military registration, enlistment or conscription, direct performance of service, placement in the reserve, and participation in the reserve forces. The diversity of forms of military service is reflected, conditioned by voluntariness or obligatoriness, as well as the differentiation of types of service depending on peacetime conditions, mobilization, the special period, and martial law. Particular attention is paid to organizational and legal aspects related to the documentary formalization of service, personnel management, medical examinations, training, and fulfillment of established requirements. The importance of counting periods of service toward various types of service record is emphasized as an element of social and legal guarantees.