GENESIS AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE SCIENTIFIC PARADIGM OF LEGAL GUARANTEES IN UKRAINE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY DIMENSION

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive study of the evolution of the scientific paradigm of legal guarantees in Ukrainian jurisprudence from 2000 to 2026. It highlights that while modern legal science has formed a stable perception of legal guaranteeing, sectoral differentiation has led to a variety of definitions and the absence of a unified conceptual approach to understanding this institution. The purpose of the study is to conceptualize the scientific paradigm of legal guaranteeing by tracing the transformation of this idea from fragmented mentions to the formation of a holistic interdisciplinary institution. Based on an analysis of approximately 100 doctoral and candidate dissertations, it is proven that the paradigm of legal guarantees has evolved from a formal-positivist understanding as a «state duty» to a modern vision as a complex, multifunctional mechanism for ensuring an individual’s legal status. It is established that the origins of national scientific thought were based on the primacy of “state provision”, where guarantees were considered an adjunct to human rights. However, the modern vector has shifted from a “state-centric” to a “human-centric” approach, where legal guarantees serve as a fundamental mechanism for the realization of human rights and the limitation of power. Special attention is paid to sectoral specifics. In criminal procedure, there is a transition from a narrow subject-oriented approach to a systemic-functional one, where guarantees ensure a balance between private and public interests. In administrative law, a transformation occurred from means of protection against the state to mechanisms of a «service state», dominated by preventive and regulatory instruments. In civil law, guarantees evolved from Soviet-style “surrogate suretyships” to dispositive means of securing obligations adapted to the requirements of private international law. In labor law, the focus shifted to the delimitation of state and employer responsibilities, prioritizing the effectiveness of benefits in real economic conditions. In the conclusions, the author generalizes the invariant core of the modern paradigm, characterized by the expansion of the object of guaranteeing (from individual rights to socio-legal institutions and processes, such as security, etc.) and the establishment of guarantees as an independent interdisciplinary category. The formulated provisions lay the methodological foundation for further reimagining the nature of legal guarantees in the context of the rule of law and human-centeredness.