Ukrainets M. P. State Sovereignty of Ukraine in the Context of Globalization and European Integration. – Qualifying scientific work as a manuscript.
Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in specialty 081 “Law”. – National University of Ostroh Academy. Ostroh, 2026.
The dissertation examines the theoretical and conceptual foundations of state sovereignty as a fundamental principle of Ukraine’s constitutional order, summarizes the main scholarly approaches to its understanding, reveals the content and essence of state sovereignty, and analyzes modern concepts of sovereignty and their evolution in the science of constitutional law of Ukraine. On this basis, it is substantiated that Ukraine’s state sovereignty should be considered as a dynamic constitutional and legal category whose content is revealed not only through the formally enshrined status of the state but also through its real capacity for self-defence, self-preservation, self-reproduction, and restoration.
An approach is proposed to distinguish between state sovereignty and the sovereign rights of the state. State sovereignty is regarded as a fundamental property of state power, whereas the sovereign rights of the state are understood as specific legal forms of implementing this property in particular spheres. This distinction makes it possible to assess contemporary processes of statehood transformation more
accurately, since a change in the manner of exercising a particular sovereign right does not always mean the loss of sovereignty as such, but may indicate a narrowing of its real content. The dissertation provides a constitutional and legal characterization of Ukraine’s state sovereignty under the conditions of globalization and European integration. It is proven that under globalization state sovereignty does not lose its
significance; however, the forms and conditions of its implementation change substantially. Globalization intensifies the economic, political, informational, legal, and security interdependence of states, as a result of which sovereignty can less and less be understood as closed self-sufficiency and increasingly requires interpretation as the state’s ability to preserve a real space for strategic choice in a complex external
environment.
The necessity of renewing the constitutional and legal model for ensuring Ukraine’s state sovereignty is substantiated. It is proposed to use the category of sovereignty capacity as a practical dimension of sovereignty, reflecting the real ability of the state to be sovereign — to maintain the effectiveness of institutions, defend itself, preserve the space for strategic decision-making, resist external coercion, and restore territorial integrity, jurisdiction, and the full functioning of state institutions.
Approaches to understanding the guarantees of sovereignty, the role of internal state capacity in ensuring it, and the need to move from a model of external expectation to a model of internally ensured sovereignty have been improved. It is substantiated that the improvement of the constitutional and legal support of Ukraine’s state sovereignty should be carried out through the consolidation of the priority of internally ensured sovereignty, strengthening the strategic autonomy of the state, developing a model of sovereign deterrence, renewing the system of sovereignty guarantees, integrating the war factor into the long-term model of constitutional development, and protecting the state will from internal deformation.
The constitutional and legal understanding of the concept of nuclear sovereignty has been further developed. Nuclear sovereignty is proposed to be understood not only as a matter of actual possession of the relevant potential but as an independent dimension of state sovereignty connected with the state’s right to determine its own security status, revise ineffective guarantee structures, and restore strategic subjectivity under the conditions of crisis in the international security order.
The practical significance of the results obtained lies in the fact that the provisions, conclusions, and generalizations formulated in the dissertation may be used in research, law-making, law-enforcement, expert-analytical, and educational activities related to the problems of ensuring Ukraine’s state sovereignty, protecting the constitutional order, national security, European integration development, and
counteracting external and internal forms of narrowing state independence.
Keywords: state sovereignty, sovereign rights of the state, constitutional order, constitutional law, globalization, European integration, sovereignty capacity, desovereignization, sovereign equality of states, national security, armed aggression, quasi-state entities, constitutional and legal mechanism.
