Anna Koval

student of Yaroslav the Wise National Law Academy of Ukraine

 

Law and Politics

The question of the relationship between law and politics of any advanced state occupied minds of great lawyers, politicians and statesmen of any age and has got pretty much importance in research in the field of law and political science.

First of all, it is necessary to stress that law cannot exist without politics as well as policy cannot exist without law, because one breeds another. And a matter of debate throughout many centuries is the question of the primacy of one of these institutions: or right arises primarily and it is based on politics, or politics generates the right, adjusting it for itself.

The eminent philosopher and public figure of the Enlightenment Dzh.Lokk said that the state was created in order to guarantee person’s natural rights and laws. Philosophers of the Antiquity (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) believed that the government, which recognized the right and at the same time was limited by it, was a just authority.

In modern practice, the main distinction between politics and law stems from the fact that the law is, first of all, the body of laws, ordinances, regulations, when policy is the strategy and activity of the people and their organizations, the impact of the power structures on the society by not only legal tools but sometimes even illegal ones.

Another difference between the policy and law we can see in the fact that the rules of law are pretty definite and "stable" when the policy is more variable and unstable, states A. Cherdantsev.

Recall the axiom of the Marxism: "Politics – is a concentrating expression of economics and law - a concentrating expression of politics." This ratio is acceptable for totalitarian regimes that arise when political standards have no legal support, where the law is not a limitation of political power, where the natural rights of man do not act as the objective of the policy.

Speaking of modern Ukraine, we can see that Article 1 of the Constitution of Ukraine which indicates Ukrainian legal and democratic regime is currently not fully implemented. Why does it happen? Many people according to their own beliefs think that the politicians adopt laws for themselves and govern public relations with illegal methods. In some cases politicians forget that the main source of power is the Ukrainian society. That is why the law must serve for the public good fulfilling our needs and interests, but not as a method of the power usurpation.

The unity of law and policy, government of public relations on the basis of law, improvement of the legal culture of the society and trust in law enforcement bodies, equality of all people before the law, political standards that have a legal basis and which are limited by the law - here is the successful development  of any country.

An important condition for the democratic development of modern Ukraine and improvement of the level of legality in the country is its compliance with the rules of the Constitution and other laws, international law, implementation of the "letter and spirit" of these documents in political practice.

Only that policy, which is based on law, will be truly intelligent, stabilizing and unifying the society. Outside of law and morality there is no place for humanistic and democratic politics. The ideal is a legal, moral policy.

And we, Ukrainians, should make every effort to promote higher standards of legality in our country changing Ukraine for the better, more democratic side. Finally, none of us wants to live in a backward country, do we?