FEATURES OF THE FUNCTIONING OF THE VERCHOVNA RADA (SUPREME COUNCIL) OF UKRAINE AS A SUBJECT OF STATE-ADMINISTRATIVE RELATIONS UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF MARITAL STATE: ISSUES OF THEORY AND PRACTICE

Abstract

Under the democratic regime, the role and importance of the parliament in this system objectively increases in connection with the need to fully ensure people’s representation, implement active lawmaking in the interests of society, and ensure effective and efficient control over the executive power in accordance with general societal needs. The subjectivity of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the system of state administration derives from the principle of parliamentary autonomy, which gradually develops as Ukraine builds a democratic legal state, and is structured in political, administrative, legal and other spheres. The purpose of this article is to study the peculiarities of the participation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as the state parliament in the system of state-administrative relations under the conditions of the legal regime of martial law (from February 24, 2022). In order to achieve this goal, a comprehensive study of the activities of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the field of public administration was conducted over a short period of time (February 2022 – May 2023). On the basis of a scientific analysis of the relevant trends, it has been proven that in the conditions of martial law introduced in Ukraine in connection with the large-scale Russian armed aggression on February 24, 2022, the role and significance of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine as the parliament of the Ukrainian state, the sole body of the legislative power, underwent noticeable transformations, caused by military and political dynamics and the needs of ensuring the security of the parliamentary institution. The analysis of the change in this role was carried out in terms of the differentiation of external management and internal management relations, the subject of which is the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In the structure of foreign management relations, the activity of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine began to be subordinated to the imperative of legislative provision of national security and defense as a leading constitutional value and the main direction of state policy under martial law. At the same time, in the internal management dimension, the problem of ensuring its own security and institutional continuity (permanent functioning of it as a single body of legislative power) acutely faced the parliament itself as a state institution. The conditions of the functioning of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the real activity during the martial law regime refute theses about the loss of its subjectivity by the Parliament of Ukraine, the decline of its role in the state administration system, etc. Instead, contradictory trends are observed: on the one hand, the rise of the legislative function in the activity of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine during this period, on the other hand, the relative decrease in the weight of the budgetary and control functions of the Parliament of Ukraine. Their combination and further prospects for development depend on possible legislative changes in the regulation of parliamentary activity, as well as on the military-political dynamics, the duration of the martial law regime, the difficulties of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, etc. On the basis of the conducted research, promising ways of improving the legislation and the practice of its implementation in the direction of strengthening the role of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the system of state administration are proposed.