This article is written to provide a general overview of the concept and principles of local self-government, in particular its role in the context of interaction with the central government. In addition, the article analyzes the features of local self-government in three EU member states and Ukraine. The leading scientific method used in the study is the formal-legal method, which allows the author to trace the relationship between the internal content and external expression (form) of state-legal phenomena and institutions. The author also seeks to apply the best European practices of local self-government to Ukraine.
The experience of European democracies has great significance in building local governance, given its effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. Local governance touches upon essential civil problems concerning the life of every person in a particular territory. This intensifies the need to search for an optimal model of local governance today. The purpose of the article is to examine the legal regulation of local governance in European countries. The article also aims to clarify the historical aspects of the local government development and comprehensively study the impact of European standards in this area on regional policy. The authors used the scientific method to identify the theoretical basis of the study. An analysis and synthesis were applied for the discussion section to find a common notion and opinion on the study of local government systems. The main method used in the article is the comparison method that allowed us to compare two local government systems and, as a result, find out an optimal one. The same method has been used to determine the factors that influence regional policy. The results obtained are necessary for the further development of local government systems, their improvement, and modernization at the legal and political levels.
Given the need to bring Ukrainian law in line with the norms and principles of international law, it is important to study European legal experience and European legal doctrine. The purpose of the article is to study the current problems of using the legal positions of the ECtHR in the decisions of Ukrainian courts. The study found that despite the legal consolidation of the status of ECtHR decisions as a source of law in Ukraine, the reasons that hinder the proper application of ECtHR practice are the lack of a systematic and well-established methodology for motivating court decisions using effective interpretative interpretation of ECtHR on specific decisions.The need to develop practical recommendations and methods of direct use of the practice of the Strasbourg court in the decisions of Ukrainian courts is pointed out. The methodological basis of the study is a dialectical method of cognition, which allows to explore problems in the unity of their social content and legal form, logical-semantic method, method of synthesis, system-structural method, sociological and statistical method and others. The practical significance of the obtained results is determined by the ability to increase the role of ECtHR decisions in ensuring human and civil rights in a democratic society.
The importance of respect for human rights in a democratic society and, especially, by the state makes this research topic relevant. However, the current situation in Ukraine is evidence that such rights are often broken, and although law enforcement officials should protect these rights, they are those who break them. The study aims to explore the role of law enforcement activities in ensuring and protecting human rights in Ukraine, examine existing problems at the legislative and practical level, and find ways to improve the current situation. The article studies the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. On its basis, it substantiates there are significant problems in the Ukrainian reality regarding the respect for human rights by law enforcement officials. Based on this, we have suggested effective meth-ods to eliminate these breaches, such as establishing additional control over the activities of law en-forcement officials and reforming their education system. As the changes and reforms should start with a terminological definition, we have emphasized the need to amend the current legislation of Ukraine that will eliminate contradictions and inaccuracies in the interpretation of the notion of law enforce-ment officials. The practical significance of the article is to prepare the basis for amendments to the leg-islation of Ukraine and the training system of law enforcement officials. In addition, the practical signif-icance of the work is to justify the need for an online platform for society to control the activities of law enforcement officials in terms of their respect for human rights and freedoms.