Classification of the values of the constitutional order in the constitution of Ukraine: theoretical aspects

Abstract

Problem setting. The development of society in the process of democratization involves changes in the value system, which is the litmus test that shows the level of democratic transformations. Total number of traditional values of Ukrainian people can change their hierarchy depending on a number of criteria with the interconnected system of values finding their fixation at the constitutional level. In this regard, there is an urgent need for providing a classification of values of the constitutional order of Ukraine.

Recent research and publications analysis. A number of researchers made a significant contribution to the development of problems of the constitutional order and its basic values. They include Yu.G. Barabash, N.A. Bobrova, M.M. Bondar, F.V. Venislavskyi, O.G. Kushnirenko, Yu.M. Todyka and others. Works of domestic scientists in the field of value orientation of public life (V.P. Kolisnyk, O.V. Skrypniuk, V.V. Rechytskyi and others) form a significant scientific and methodological basis of the research. It is also necessary to note works of foreign scientists, in particular, A. Sen, J. Habermas, G. Joas, K. Vihandta, etc.

Paper objective. The objective of the article is analysis of generally defined value orientations of Ukrainian society in the conditions of globalization processes and provision of the author’s classification of the basic values of the constitutional order of Ukraine.

Paper main body. Systematic analysis of the text of the Constitution of Ukraine allows identification of freedom, human rights, justice, morality, humanism, democracy, rule of law, legal limit of power, pluralism and a number of other fundamental ideas as the most important and widely accepted social values. After all, they contribute to the democratic nature of the legal status of a person, democratic procedures of the formation, organization and functioning of the state power, interaction of its various bodies, free activity of the institutes of civil society, etc. Taken together, they constitute the basic values of the constitutional order of Ukraine, i.e. the political, legal and moral ideas and principles that reflect the ideals existing in Ukrainian society that underly the entire constitutional and legal regulation.

If to describe the very characteristic of the values of the constitutional order concerning the Ukrainian statehood, we should first determine sovereignty and independence. Sovereignty in the constitutional law is a prerequisite for the formation of the state in general, an important feature of the constitutional structure of the modern state. That is why it needs a clear legal definition and provision with guarantees at the highest legal level.

Conclusions of the research. Given a large number of values of Ukrainian society, much of them received their fixation at the level of the Constitution of Ukraine. The constitutional order being the fundamental basis of the Constitution of Ukraine represents the basic values. Given the current classifications of the basic constitutional values, one should be guided by a combination of values of the constitutional order relating to the principles of civil society and values of the constitutional order concerning the Ukrainian statehood. The highest hierarchical values have been characterized: freedom and justice as the values of civil society; sovereignty, independence and Unitarianism as the values relating to the Ukrainian statehood. These values are the means of rapprochement between individuals, cultures and nations and an universal instrument to achieve social harmony and peace.