PREFACE

Ensuring the development of Ukraine as a democratic, independent, sovereign, social and legal state, provided by Art. 1 of the Constitution of Ukraine, raised the crucial problem of creating a solid legal basis for modernization of the transition society, effective reform of the state and legal system, able in market relations and free competition to ensure social security and stability, guarantee human and civil rights and freedoms, create equal conditions and opportunities for comprehensive personal development.

Today, as never before, the role of legal education is growing, which aims not only to give young people relevant knowledge, understanding of the system of universal principles and values, but also to create an opportunity to form a stable life position, attitudes of the individual, citizen in deep European legal transformation. Awareness of the younger generation of the value of law and state institutions is a reliable and effective means of combating spirituality, arbitrariness, legal and civil ignorance, social and societal aggression, on the one hand, and passivity, on the other. Emphasis in legal education should shift from the usual accumulation of knowledge to the formation of the ability of students to independently acquire, analyze, rethink, interpret, interpret and evaluate a variety of legal information.

The task of the discipline "Science of law" is to provide higher education systematized modern knowledge of legal sciences, educating them to respect the Constitution, laws and regulations of Ukraine. Assimilation of specific professional terminology, legal minimum knowledge of constitutional, civil, family, labor, economic, administrative, criminal and international law - a prerequisite for future professional activity in the context of modern economic life and postwar reconstruction of Ukraine. Therefore, studying this integrated course is a mandatory element of training a specialist with higher education, regardless of specialties.

The proposed textbook highlights in a concise and sufficiently accessible form the main fundamental provisions of state jurisprudence and law of Ukraine. Acquaintance with the specified material will help the reader to get the corresponding competences to be guided freely in the current legislation, to form abilities and skills of work with normative-legal acts, correctly to apply legal norms to concrete practical situations.

For orientation of entrants, cadets (listeners) in their independent work on educational material and self-control after each theme test tasks and control questions are allocated, and at the end of the manual the glossary and the list of the recommended literature is given. The publication is designed mainly for applicants for higher education in the first year of study in higher education institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, so the coverage of a topic is presented in somewhat simplified forms with highlighting the main properties of certain state or legal phenomena, their components, types and so on. Relevant examples from normative legal acts, law enforcement acts and other legal documents are given to emphasize the connections between theoretical provisions and practice.

Acquisition by cadets (students) of such competencies involves primarily their active and creative independent work on the materials of the manual and other educational, legal, scientific sources, in the process of individual tasks, preparation for lectures, seminars, practical classes, writing scientific articles and reports. By its nature and quality of knowledge and skills that are formed during its implementation, such work can be reproductive, aimed at understanding, memorizing and simply reproducing the material of the textbook, reconstructive, involving its analysis (compiling a synopsis, supplementing materials from other textbooks or lecture notes, search and giving examples from regulations or educational materials from other legal disciplines, etc.), heuristic, aimed at finding and solving problems of the course (comparative analysis of various textbooks or other sources, identifying issues that are not covered in the manual and justification of the need for their knowledge, the implementation of their own research to participate in meetings of scientific circles, conferences, competitions and so on). To master the study material, cadets (students) can use a variety of methods of independent work with the manual: make a plan of the material read and abstracts, take notes and highlight individual quotes, prepare essays.

In this textbook, theoretical definitions and concepts are presented mainly within the domestic state and legal traditions. Careful and persistent independent work of cadets (students) with the materials of the manual, taking into account the recommendations provided, will help them achieve the appropriate level of competence.

The author’s team expresses its sincere gratitude to all those who contributed to the creation of this textbook with advice and comments, especially to the reviewers: Doctor of Law, Professor Kalinovsky BV and Doctor of Law, Associate Professor Perepelkin SM

Head of the Department of Theory of State and Law National Academy of Internal Affairs Candidate of Law, Associate Professor Maksym PENDZURA