THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF RESILIENCE: NATIONAL APPROACHES AND EU POLICY (A COMPARATIVE LEGAL STUDY)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to identify legal vulnerabilities at various levels of Ukraine’s legal system, assess the degree of their negative impact on the formation and implementation of the state’s social policy, and propose methods for their elimination and ways to minimize their negative effects, taking into account the achievements of the EU legal system in the studied area of relations. To achieve this research objective, general scientific and special methods of scientific inquiry were employed, including dialectical, legal hermeneutics, comparative legal, analytical-synthetic, formal-logical, system-structural analysis, and prognostic methods. The empirical basis of the research comprised the Constitution of Ukraine and other national legislative acts, selected international legal acts, EU law acts, case law of the European Court of Human Rights, specific draft laws, and analytical materials prepared by the European Committee of Social Rights, the European Commission, and others. The conclusion is substantiated that a formal approach to assessing the applicability of EU law to the regulation of specific groups of social and labor relations at the national level, and the consequent formulation of erroneous conclusions regarding the lack of need for approximation of the relevant elements of Ukraine’s legislation to EU law, creates conditions for embedding vulnerabilities in the system of legal regulation of the socio-labor sphere. If not timely identified and addressed at the appropriate stage of the legal regulation mechanism, these vulnerabilities can transform into threats to national security, a recognized component of which is the socio-economic sphere, and they will ultimately impact Ukraine’s national resilience and its social component.

Three levels of the state’s legal system have been identified, at each of which legal vulnerabilities (conflicts, gaps, flawed legal concepts, non-compliance with legislative procedures, etc.) are formed due to coordinated actions and/or inactions, as well as decisions made by authorized government bodies. These vulnerabilities can transform into hybrid threats, negatively affecting the social security system. Legal vulnerabilities have been identified at each of the three levels of the state’s legal system (legislative, implementation, and constitutional review levels), and methods for their elimination and ways to minimize their negative impacts have been proposed, taking into account the achievements of the EU legal system in the field of ensuring the formation and implementation of social and employment policies on the basis of resilience.

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