The thesis is a comprehensive scientific research of the principles of law in the light of the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. In the course of such research, their nature is revealed in its function as initial legal ideas that ensure that the law fulfills its main purpose – to serve people and society, as well as the appropriate tools for the implementation of this axiological (value) component of law. Taking into account such possibilities, the author's distinction between «law-developing» principles (which ensure the dynamics of law) and «law-stabilizing» principles (which ensure the statics of law) is substantiated.
It is proposed that the first group of principles that allow the law to progress includes the principles of humanism, freedom, justice, equality and some others, such as the principle of «universal permissiveness», the principle of reasonableness.
It is established that in the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine the characterization of these principles takes on an additional meaningful development. In particular, it is revealed that the main manifestations of the principle of humanism are the recognition and approval by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine of human dignity, as well as justification for compensation for moral damage, the abolition of the death penalty (and thus declaring the content and scope of the right to life), the responsibility of the state for the fate of orphans, social partnership of philanthropists and the state in providing decent living conditions and personal development for everyone.
Various aspects of understanding by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine of the principle of freedom are revealed, including: axiological (follows from the nature of freedom as a fundamental value of an effective constitutional democracy); anthropological (related to the functional potential of freedom for personal development and socialization); gnoseological (determined by the methodological potential of «freedom», namely its ability to: a) mediate human and civil rights (for example, the right to privacy, the right to information, the right to work, the right to property), b) determine the balance of interests of an individual, society, the state, and therefore the concept of «public interest», «legally protected interest», «censorship», which provides fort outlining the boundaries of human rights); ontological (formed as a result of the external consolidation of the principle of freedom in the form of an independent right to freedom, and also manifests itself in the process of ensuring the so – called negative rights - individual freedoms, for example, "freedom and personal inviolability", «freedom of association», etc.).
It is established that the philosophical and legal content of the principle of justice is filled by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine through links with: a) the concept of the welfare state, b) the principle of proportionality, c) the right to a fair trial.
The philosophical and legal characteristics of the principle of equality are supplemented taking into account: a) additional components of its structure related to the specifics of subjects and objects; b) factors that determine the «existence» of this principle, among which: the sphere of public life, that is, a section of public space that has become «discriminatory vulnerable», features (nature) of legal rights that are «in the zone of discriminatory risk», the interrelation between different human and civil rights, the criteria for differentiating legal regulation, namely, «expediency», «justification in a democratic society» and «reasonableness», varieties of guarantees for ensuring the principle under study, the correlation of the principle of equality with other principles of law, in particular with the principles of Justice, freedom, the presumption of innocence and the inadmissibility of bringing a person to justice for refusing to give evidence against himself.
