International treaties: protection of national interests

Abstract

Background. The national system of law does not have an effective «filtering mechanism» of international treaties, subject to the conclusion of which the state is represented by one or another of its authorized representatives, which often leads to disadvantageous economic, financial and other burdens of Ukraine compared to other countries of the world, as well as to overloading of national legislation with the legislative ballast.
Analysis of recent research and publications has shown that, despite the existence of some scientific achievements, there remains an important scientific and practical problem that is related to the requirements for the qualitative content of such treaties. At the same time, the existing «technology» in the system of national law of concluding international treaties enables the public authorities, their officials to conclude such treaties discretionally, without actually bearing any legal responsibility for their content and the consequences of their practical implementation.
The aim of the article is to investigate the mechanisms of concluding international treaties in the context of the constitutional legislation of Ukraine and other countries of the world, as well as to formulate proposals for improving national legislation on the legal regulation of the conclusion of such treaties and to strengthen the regulatory requirements for their content.
Materials and methods. In the course of researching the topic of the article, a complex methodological toolkit was used, based on philosophical methods of cognition (dialectical, hermeneutic, etc.) and general scientific methods of cognition (methods of analysis and synthesis, system-structural, formal-logical, modeling) and special legal methods (legal-dogmatic, comparative-legal, interpretative), etc.
Results. Scientific hypotheses have been put forward, that in the modern system of state formation there is a gradual departure from the «prerogative» of the head of state in signing international treaties, which led to an increase in the competence of national parliaments, but not to increase their legal responsibility for the consequences of such treaties implementation in the national system of law. According to the results of this study, legislative proposals were developed. The implementation of these proposals will enhance to raising the level of national security and protection of national interests.
Conclusion. Unlike existing publications, for the first time the scientific hypothesis was formulated about the need to increase the requirements for the qualitative content of international treaties. It is found that the laws of the countries of the world, including Ukraine, do not contain rules of law that would explicitly determine the type and extent of liability of public law entities for the conclusion of international treaties, the content of which does not correspond to the national interests of the state. In view of this, it is proposed to regulate clear imperative requirements for the content of such international treaties, one of which is the prohibition of concluding treaties containing «secret clauses». The conceptual provisions stated above should find proper objectification by amending the constitutional legislation of Ukraine.