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Danilo GETMANTSEV,

Professor of the Department of Financial Law, Faculty of Law, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, President of the Association of Tax Advisers, Member of the European Association of Tax Professors, Doctor of Laws

ON THE MATTER OF LEGITIMACY OF PUBLIC FINANCES: THEORETICAL AND LEGAL APPROACHES

The article analyses the content and criteria of legitimacy of public finances in terms of the study of legitimacy of financial and legal regulations within the principles of law.

Having examined current trends in the development of key society management institutions, based on international practice, the author emphasizes that traditional perception of the state as an absolute sovereign is subject to review in the context of the expansion of the role of non-governmental institutions at the supranational level, which urges the development of new approaches to the legality of the state and political power, as well as established legal regulations.

The article emphasizes that such an approach in terms of domestic law enforcement brings to the fore the matter of observance of the principles of law called to serve as a benchmark and self-restraint for the state during adoption of legal acts. At the same time, taking into account the existing rule-making practice, the sphere of financial law is the most sensitive to political pressure and, accordingly, to the violation of the principles of law when making politically expedient decisions, which has been repeatedly certified in practice by violating the principles of law when making changes to the tax legislation of Ukraine.

Thus, in the light of modern scientific research and international practice, the degree of observance of the principles of law during the adoption of an act of the state in the field of public finance management is proved to have a direct impact on the possibility of obtaining the legitimate status of such an act.

From the viewpoint of the possibility to apply the results of the study in practice, the article offers an approach, according to which the act of the state on the introduction of tax, adopted with violation of the principles of law (both general and special), is illegitimate and must be declared unlawful by the court, due to its contradiction to the principle of law.

Key words: legitimacy, lawfulness, principles of law, public finances, financial and legal regulations.

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