New Principles of Administrative Procedures in Ukraine

The article examines legislative innovations in the legal regulation of administrative procedures in Ukraine. It is established that special legislation on administrative procedures currently exists in most countries of the European Union and the post-Soviet space in the form of laws or codes. The subject matter of legal regulation of these legislative acts includes relations of executive authorities, local self-government bodies, their officials and other entities authorised to perform public administration functions with individuals and legal entities regarding consideration and resolution of administrative cases. The article establishes that legislative regulation of administrative procedures is an important guarantee of the exercise by individuals and legal entities of their rights, freedoms and legitimate interests. Ukraine's modernisation of the relevant legislation in the relations between the government and an individual is delayed. At present, most procedural elements of relations between administrative bodies and individuals and legal entities are regulated by subordinate legislation. The need for legislative regulation of administrative procedures is driven by the Public Administration Reform Strategy of Ukraine for 2022-2025 and Ukraine's European integration objectives. Relevant draft laws on interaction between public administration bodies and individuals and legal entities have been repeatedly submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine since the early 2000, but have not been adopted for various reasons. On 17 February 2022, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine "On Administrative Procedure", which comes into force on 15 December 2023. The author identifies the advantages and disadvantages of this Law, the prerequisites for its adoption, and the vectors for further improvement of administrative procedure legislation, which should include its further codification, conceptual and terminological unification, digitalisation and simplification of general administrative procedures