Principles of military duty as a legal category

The article examines the principles of military duty as a legal category based on current legislation. The task of improving the effectiveness of legal regulation of military duty remains relevant. The purpose of the study is to determine the legal nature, content, patterns of regulation, and development of military duty as an element of the legal status of Ukrainian citizens in modern conditions, taking into account the legal, historical, and political characteristics of society and the state, and to develop recommendations for improving legislation on military duty. The object of the study is the system of social relations that arise in the course of legal regulation of military duty. The subject is the legal regulation of military duty as an element of the constitutional and legal status of a citizen. The research methodology consisted of dialectical, logical, historical, systemic-structural, statistical, comparative- legal, and formal-legal methods, as well as the modeling method. The study revealed the constitutional and legal characteristics of military duty: compulsory military service; targeted public-legal nature; connection between implementation and modification of the constitutional and legal status of citizens. It is noted that military duty is based on a system of principles derived from the Constitution of Ukraine: unity of legal regulation and implementation; limited implementation in time; personal implementation; implementation on the basis of Ukrainian citizenship; absence of punishment and punitive nature. These principles, in their systemic unity, are a necessary condition for guaranteeing the legal status of citizens in the performance of military duty. It is noted that military duty as a legal phenomenon is characterized by many aspects. Thanks to this, it is not limited only to the quality of a citizen’s constitutional duty, but exists in other forms. Military duty is not implemented haphazardly, but is based on a system of principles: legality, fairness, reasonableness and humanity, balance of public and private interests, expediency, efficiency; differentiation of military duty performance, unity of legal regulation.