Thesis is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the formation and development of liberal ideas, as well as their implementation in the realization of freedom within the legal system of Ukraine.
Chapter 1, 'The Formation and Development of Liberalism as a Legal Ideology', provides an in-depth examination of the emergence and evolution of liberal doctrine within both classical and domestic state-legal theories. It analyzes the theoretical foundations and defining characteristics of legal liberalism as a core ideological component of the legal system.
Based on an analysis of the development of liberal doctrine within classical state-legal theories, it is established that classical liberalism, in terms of its fundamental principles, can be classified into the following categories: normative (grounded in the principle of legality as articulated by John Locke); utilitarian (based on the principle of utility, as proposed by Jeremy Bentham); individualistic (emphasizing the independence of the individual from the state, as advanced by John Stuart Mill); economic (centered on the principle of private property, as formulated by Adam Smith and Ludwig von Mises); and institutional (focused on the realization of freedom through the establishment and development of political-legal institutions such as decentralization, elections, and the separation of powers, as elaborated by Alexis de Tocqueville and Charles Montesquieu).
In the dissertation, the substantive components of legal liberalism as an ideological element of the legal system are identified: the understanding of law as recognized freedom, which serves as the fundamental principle and law governing the development of social relations; the ideas of personal freedom, limited government, human rights, and equality, which set the trends for the development of legal reality; the theory of the primacy of personal freedom over the state, which forms the ideological and value components of the legal system; and liberal perspectives on the organization of socio-political life, where law plays a central role as a universal regulator of social relations.
Chapter 2, 'General Theoretical Characterization and Features of the Implementation of Legal Liberalism in the Legal System of Ukraine', the classification of liberal-legal ideas is examined, a comparative analysis of liberalism and communitarianism as the main legal ideologies is provided, and the liberal-legal standards for the development of the legal system, as well as the specific features of their implementation, are highlighted.
The proposed classification of legal liberalism is based on the criterion of approaches to the organization of democratic processes. 1. Organizational, which is based on the orientation toward both governmental and non-governmental democratic institutions and organizations, whose functional purpose is to ensure the processes of popular sovereignty and the realization of the principles of individual and collective freedom. 2. Competitive, which is based on the view that individual and collective freedom develops through equal opportunities for individuals, thereby necessitating the institutions of democracy and human rights. These two approaches in legal liberalism differ in their perspective on what constitutes the foundation of popular sovereignty: an institution or social communication and the competition of free individuals and groups.
