CONSTITUTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL STATE: ISSUES OF THEORY AND PRACTICE

Abstract

The publication examines the theory, history and practice of the constitutional state in the context of the development of constitutionalism, constitutions and state-building practices of the XVIII-XXI centuries. The connection between constitutionalism, the constitution and the constitutional state and their tasks and functions are analyzed. Emphasis is placed on their organic combination, as a doctrine, normative-legal and institutional mechanisms of constitutional-legal regulation of the status of man, society and the state. The conclusion about the spread of the theory and practice of the constitutional state in the XIX century is substantiated. in Europe and America, as a natural reaction to the positive consolidation in the first constitutions of the end XVIII – middle XIX century values regarding the inviolability of innate (natural) human rights, social contract, people’s sovereignty, parliamentarism, electability and variability of public authorities, etc. After all, the main credo of the constitutional state is state formation, organization and exercise of state power in the interests of man and people on the basis of strict observance of the spirit and letter of the constitution. It is emphasized that the ideas of the constitutional state, enshrined in the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk in 1710, were not implemented in the nation-state, but had significant historical value for the revival of constitutional statehood in independent Ukraine. The publication also analyzes the approaches of jurists (G. de Lolm, K. Leimer, A. Daisy, A. Siyes, F. Kokoshkin, S. Korf, S. Kotlyarevsky, F. Oppenheimer, W. Rennekampf, B. Chicherin, and others ) on the essence, content and key features of the constitutional state. The key values and principles of the constitutional state are generalized and systematized. The ratio of related but not identical categories «constitutional state» and «rule of law» is investigated. The causes and consequences of the loss of popularity of the doctrine and practice of the constitutional state and the prospects for the revival and modernization of the constitutional state in the XXI century are established.