The Concept of Public Security and Order in the Practice of the National Police

Abstract

The article analyzes the notion 'public security and order' which is the main task of such law enforcement agency as the National Police of Ukraine. There are attempts to identify the place and legal nature of such category as 'public order' in the sphere of civil law and private international law. It has been noted that public order in private international law is a mean to limit application of foreign law in private relations complicated by a foreign element. The frequency and context of the use of notions 'public security and order' in the Law of Ukraine 'On the National Police' of July 2, 2015 have been presented. Normative enshrining of this and related notions such as 'civil security and order' and 'national security' in the Constitution of Ukraine, the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences, the Criminal Code of Ukraine and other legislative acts has been analyzed. Approaches of scholars to the understanding of the essence and differences between mentioned notions have been studied. Problems of the Draft Law 'On Public Order' have been shown. Foreign experience regarding the use of notions 'public security' and 'public order' has been investigated. The content of the Recommendation Rec (2001) 10 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States on the European Code of Police Ethics and the Law of Bavaria 'On Tasks and Powers of Bavarian Police,' the Law of Portugal 'On the Organization of Police and Public Security,' the Law of Poland 'On Police,' the Law of Slovenia 'On Police,' the Law of the Netherlands 'On Police,' the Law of Belgium 'On Police Activities.' It has been concluded that notions 'public security' and 'public order' are close to the notions 'civil security' and 'civil order.' Necessity to solve the problems which arose after introducing the Law of Ukraine 'On the National Police' regarding public security and order has been proved. Those notions are not defined in legislation and science. It has been proposed to use old definitions in national law terminology.