DIRECTIONS FOR COUNTERACTING LEGAL NIHILISM AND ENHANCING LEGAL CULTURE IN CONDITIONS OF HIGH-INTENSITY ARMED CONFLICT

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to determine the directions for counteracting legal nihilism and enhancing legal culture in the conditions of a high-intensity armed conflict. It is stated that the impact of legal culture and legal nihilism on all aspects of personality development (its worldview, value orientations, legal behavior) is difficult to overestimate, as it is the foundation of the stability of a democratic state. It is determined that in order to preserve the democratic achievements of Ukrainian society currently and to ensure the sustainable development of the state after the termination of the martial law regime, it is extremely important to prevent the dominance of legal nihilism. It is established that the level of legal consciousness of Ukrainian society is negatively affected by a number of factors that have been active for a long time, and their characteristics are provided. Attention is focused on a group of factors that arose as a result of the full-scale aggression and are related to general tendencies of devaluation of non-coercive methods of resolving social conflicts. This is due both to the nihilistic policy of the Russian aggressor, which destroys international law, and to the extreme weakness of the international security architecture, which is incapable of restraining the aggressor through legal methods. The internal factors that also intensify the contempt for law in the context of a high-intensity armed conflict are characterized. The position is substantiated that a great role in preserving legal culture during the full-scale Russian armed aggression belongs to civil society and the scientific community, whose task is to provide objective feedback to government bodies regarding the compliance of their activities with the principle of the rule of law. It is determined that reducing the level of legal nihilism during the decision-making process by government bodies is one of the important tasks of public control over the legality of the functioning of the public administration system and the compliance of its decisions with the principle of the rule of law.