The State’s task to appropriately streamline and efficiently develop economic relations necessitates the availability of a body of legal provisions which can regulate these relations and form the branch of economic law. At the same time, the processes of innovative transformations in public production result in the complication and change of economic relations, and this affects the purpose of legal regulation of economic relations for the sake of ensuring a higher level of their development. With this in mind, there is a need to take a new look at the content of the functions of economic law, in particular, its protective function.

The purpose of the article is to elucidate the content and the specific features pertaining to implementation of the protective function of economic law.

In the course of the research, the author analyzes scientific views on the functions of law, their characteristics, types of functions of law and importance. Furthermore, the author makes a conclusion that the objective and the functions of economic law are interdependent and interrelated in the context of resolving the issue of establishment and enhancement of the social economic order in the economic system.

The author substantiates that if the protective function of economic law is interpreted mainly in the context of protection of violated rights of business entities, this results in a narrowed understanding of this line of the impact made by economic law provisions. Given that economic relations are the result of close intersection and interaction of private and public interests of participants to relations in the economic activity domain, the author argues that this is what determines the content of the protective function of economic law and its objective to maximally ensure the appropriate observance, implementation, use, and application of relevant legal provisions.

It is substantiated that for the efficient protection of economic relations and for ensuring the rule of law in economy, the economic law provisions of protection should regulate: 1) measures and conditions for prevention of economic offenses; 2) grounds, forms and methods to protect the rights of participants to relations in the economic activity domain; 3) grounds, measures and procedure for using measures of liability under economic law. With a view to elucidating the specific features of the protective function of economic law, the author characterizes the measures for prevention of economic offences (preventive component), protection of rights and legitimate interests of participants to relations in the economic activity domain (central component) and application of liability under economic law as a component of the protective functions of economic law.

Based on the conducted research, the author makes a conclusion that the protective function of economic law is the impact of economic law provisions on the relations in the economic activity domain exerted through the dispositive and imperative methods of legal regulation which ensure the streamlining of economic relations through a combination of the individual business (property) interest and the common social and public needs.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Andrieieva O ta inshi, Hospodarske pravo Ukrainy [Commercial Law of Ukraine] (Kharkiv nats un-t vnutr sprav 2016) (in Ukrainian).

2. Kelman M, Teoriia prava [The Theory of Law] (In-t vnutr sprav pry NAVSU 1998) (in Ukrainian).

3. Prozorov V, Kachestvo i jeffektivnost’ hozjajstvennogo zakonodatel’stva v uslovijah rynka [The Quality and Efficiency of Economic Legislation in the Market Conditions] (Juridicheskaja literatura 1991) (in Russian).

4. Pronska H, Vybrane [Selected] (Osvita Ukrainy 2013) (in Ukrainian).

Edited books

5. Batan Yu, ‘Vplyv preventyvnoho mekhanizmu prava na nepravomirnu povedinku’ [‘Influence of the Preventive Mechanism of the Law on Unlawful Behavior’] v Kozachenko O ta Streltsov Ye (red), Pravovyi vplyv na nepravomirnu povedinku: aktualni hrani [Legal Influence on Unlawful Behavior: Actual Faces: Monograph] (Ilion 2016) (in Ukrainian).

6. Bobkova A (pod obshch red), Hozjajstvennyj kodeks Ukrainy: nauchno-prakticheskij kommentarij [Economic Code of Ukraine: Scientific and Practical Commentary] (Yzdatel FL-P Vapniarchuk N N 2008) (in Russian).

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Journal articles

11. Belianevych O, ‘Problema preventyvnoho zakhystu prav u hospodarskomu sudochynstvi ta yoho mezh’ [‘The Problem of Preventive Protection of Rights in Economic Justice and its Boundaries’] (2011) 11 Ukrainske komertsiine pravo 34 (in Ukrainian).

12. Golovin L, ‘Otnoshenija juridicheskoj otvetstvennosti v plane teorii pravootnoshenij [‘Relationship of Legal Responsibility in Terms of the Theory of Legal Relationships’] (1994) 2 Jurist 19 (in Russian). 13. Kovalskyi V, ‘Funktsii prava: tsinnisnyi ta sutnisnyi vymiry’ [‘Functions of Law: Value and Meaning dimensions’] (2012) 3 Almanakh prava 58 (in Ukrainian).

14. Naumenko I, ‘Osnovnye principy sootnoshenija publichnyh i chastnyh interesov v grazhdanskoe prave’ [‘The Basic Principles of the Relationship of Public and Private Interests in Civil Law’] [2009] 2(16) Leningradskij juridicheskij zhurnal 198 (in Russian).

15. Rudyk Yu, ‘Suchasni pohliady na poniattia “funktsiia prava”’ [‘Modern Views on the Concept of “the Function of Law”’] (2009) Aktualni problemy derzhavy i prava 233 (in Ukrainian).

16. Sorokina Ju, ‘K voprosu o cennosti prava’ [‘On the Question of the Value of Law’] (2007) 2 Filosofija prava 12 (in Russian).

Thesis

17. Ivanenko O, ‘Sutnist yurydychnoi vidpovidalnosti ta rol pravookhoronnykh orhaniv u yii zabezpechenni’ [‘Essence of Legal Liability and Role of Law-Enforcement Body in Ensuring it’] (avtoref dys kand yuryd nauk, Kyivskyi natsionalnyi universytet vnutrishnikh sprav 2007) (in Ukrainian).

18. Kovalskyi V, ‘Okhoronna funktsiia prava yak sotsialnyi pravovyi fenomen’ [‘The Protective Function of Law as a Social Legal Phenomenon’] (avtoref dys doct yuryd nauk, Instytut zakonodavstva Verkhovnoi Rady Ukrainy 2011) (in Ukrainian).