OKOLOT M. Entry into civil service in Ukraine and China: comparative-legal characteristics.

The dissertation is dedicated to studying entry into civil service according to legislation of Ukraine and the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter – PRC, China) and is the first complex scientific work providing a comparative-legal characteristic of entry into civil service which precedes attaining by a citizen the status of a civil servant and service career thereof, in particular, historical development of entry into civil service in Ukraine and the PRC is researched; points of view of national and foreign researchers regarding entry into civil service are analysed; main relevant normative and legal acts of Ukraine and the PRC in the part of regulating entry into civil service are reviewed; general and specific requirements to candidates and restrictions to entry as prerequisites of realisation of the right to civil service are generalised; entry into civil service is characterised with distinguishing competition procedure and appointment procedure; comparison of competition procedure is carried out by defining competition steps according to the legislation of Ukraine and the PRC; procedure of appointing the winner of competition for position and specifics of taking an oath are reviewed according to the legislation of researched countries; ways of optimising entry into civil service according to national legislation with consideration of positive PRC experience are proposed. As a result of research carried out periods of forming of civil service of researched countries as an independent legal institute are defined: in Ukrainian lands a professional civil service emerged not earlier than the times of Zaporozhian Sich, and in China – not earlier than 2nd century BC. Also, the state of researching entry into civil service is considered in the work, which in the context of comparing it with the PRC is considered to be fragmentary: comparative research constitutes only a small portion of reviewed scientific works, majority of which are either omitting the experience of Asian countries or are limited to mentioning the meritocracy principle. System of normative-legal acts regarding entry into civil service according to legislation of Ukraine and PRC is outlined. In particular, the Law of the PRC “On civil servants”, secondary normative-legal acts “Regulations on the Recruitment of Civil Servants” and “Measures for Public Selection of Civil Servants” are main PRC acts. It is stated that a feature of the PRC legislation on entry into civil service is significant scope of discretionary powers of state organs in organising the competition procedure. In the Ukrainian legislation general provisions on entry are provided in the Laws of Ukraine “On civil service”, “On Prevention of Corruption”, as well as in the Laws of Ukraine dedicated to specifics of entry into civil service positions of special nature. It is stated that specification of said provisions is provided in secondary normative-legal acts, among which the key one is “Regulations on carrying out competition for civil service positions”. The necessity of updating, unifying and improving normative-legal acts by means of integration of archaic normative-legal acts, especially in the part of unambiguous wording and definition of requirements of ethical and moral nature, which are a positive element but which are difficult to evaluate and examine in practice in absence of unambiguous criteria, is noted. As a result of comparative research carried out it has been established that entry into civil service in Ukraine and the PRC has distinct differences. In Ukraine it is carried out according to the open model and is based on principles of equal entry and political impartiality, while in the PRC traditional model is present, aimed at candidates’ professionalism albeit with significant politicisation of civil service towards which, in particular, analysis of principles of civil service concerning entry into civil service points. By carrying out comparative characteristics features of entry into civil service in the PRC were determined, allowing making a conclusion on impossibility of complete reproduction thereof for enhancing national legislation. Statistical data regarding entry into civil service are analysed and efficiency of separate elements of competition procedure in the PRC and possibility of introduction thereof into Ukrainian legislation for optimizing the competitive selection is confirmed.