Functional purpose of local self-government bodies as a subject of ensuring the law enforcement function of the state

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the scientific substantiation of the need for the participation of local self-government bodies in the implementation of law enforcement function, the study of legal forms of implementation of law enforcement function by local self-government bodies in Ukraine, and the development of proposals for their improvement.

It has been established that the law enforcement function of local self-government is mostly forgotten in the legal literature, following the Soviet habit of attributing this function to the prerogatives of the state. In this regard, the study of the law enforcement function of local self- government is an important theoretical and practical task of modern administrative and legal science.

It has been argued that in administrative and legal science, insufficient attention has been paid to the problems of: administrative and legal mechanism of activity to ensure public order and public safety; participation of local self-government bodies in the implementation of the law enforcement function; legal forms of implementation of the law enforcement function by local self-government bodies; interaction of local self-government institutions with law enforcement bodies regarding the implementation of the law enforcement function.

It has been established that the modern system of public administration does not fully use the capabilities of local self-governments in the field of protecting public law and order and ensuring public safety. This is due to the fact that the process of establishing their legal status at the current stage of development of Ukraine remains incomplete, and the constitutional and legislative norms establishing their competence are not mutually coherent, clear and certain. As a result, the implementation of the powers of local self-government bodies enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine in the field of law and order and ensuring public safety is quite limited.

It has been proven that at this stage of municipal development, the implementation of law enforcement function by local self-government bodies in Ukraine is carried out in four legal forms of activity: establishing, rule-making, law enforcement and control. In turn, the relevant local self-government bodies with law enforcement powers can be considered as institutional forms of implementing the law enforcement function of local self-government.