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Revista de Trabajo Social ISSN 2244-808X

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ARTÍCULO DE INVESTIGACIÓN

Apoyo normativo y jurídico a la reforma de la fiscalía en Ucrania en materia

de responsabilidad social de las empresas

DOI:10.5281/zenodo.10436645

Оlena Gulak*, Spartak Pozniakov**, Iuliia Iarmolenko***, Pavlo Parkhomenko**** y

Lidiia Sukmanovska*****

Resumen

El propósito de este trabajo es analizar el nivel de efectividad de la reforma de las

fiscalías e identificar aspectos problemáticos a través del prisma de la responsabilidad

social corporativa. Factores como: el análisis del trabajo científico, la organización de las

actividades de la oficina del fiscal en la etapa actual del desarrollo de Ucrania, el estudio

de datos estadísticos, datos de estudios sociológicos y la efectividad de la interacción del

sistema de aplicación de la ley, análisis de regulaciones y cambios legales, que regulan

las actividades de la oficina del fiscal en su retrospectiva permitió formar varias

conclusiones: 1) La necesidad de reformar la oficina del fiscal en la etapa actual está

determinada por la demanda pública para la implementación del Estado de derecho y la

protección de los derechos y libertades humanos y ciudadanos; la necesidad de cumplir

con las obligaciones de integración europea asumidas por Ucrania; deshacerse de los

vestigios antidemocráticos obsoletos; 2) Entre las principales transformaciones

progresivas del soporte legal de la actividad de la fiscalía ucraniana, cabe señalar:

privación de poderes generales de supervisión, liquidación de unidades de investigación,

una limitación significativa de la representación en los tribunales; creación de nuevos

órganos de autogobierno fiscal.

Palabras clave: apoyo jurídico, normativo y legal; fuerzas del orden; fiscalía;

responsabilidad social de la fiscalía; orientación social de la reforma de la fiscalía.

Abstract

Regulatory and legal support for the reform of the prosecutor's office in

Ukraine in terms of corporate social responsibility

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the level of effectiveness of the prosecutor's

office reform and to identify problematic aspects through the prism of corporate social

responsibility. Such factors as: the analysis of scientific work, the organization of the

prosecutor's office activities at the current stage of development of Ukraine, the study

of statistical data, data of sociological studies and the effectiveness of interaction of the

law enforcement system, analysis of regulations and legal changes, which regulate the

activities of the prosecutor's office in its retrospective allowed to form several

conclusions: 1) The need to reform the prosecutor's office at the present stage is

determined by public demand for the implementation of the rule of law and the

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203 
 
protection of human and citizens' rights and freedoms; the need to fulfill the European 
integration  obligations  assumed  by  Ukraine;  getting  rid  of  outdated  antidemocratic 
vestiges; 2) Among the main progressive transformations of the legal support of the 
activity of the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, it should be noted: deprivation of general 
supervisory  powers,  liquidation  of  investigative  units,  a  significant  limitation  of 
representation in courts; creation of new bodies of prosecutorial self-government. 
 
Keywords: legal, regulatory and legal support; law enforcement agencies; prosecutor's 
office;  social  responsibility  of  the  prosecutor's  office;  social  orientation  of  the 
prosecutor's reform. 
 
  Recibido: 07/07/23 Aceptado: 22/07/2023 
*State  Organization  “V.  Mamutov  Institute  of  Economic  and  Legal  Research  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences of Ukraine” E-mail: krasnova_yulya@ukr.net  ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7898-9603     
**National  University  of  Life  and  Environmental  Sciences  of  Ukraine,  Kyiv,  Ukraine.  E-mail: 
ndi_land_law@ukr.net  ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2929-1959   
***Donetsk  State  University  of  Internal  Affairs,  Kryvyi  Rih,  Ukraine.  E-mail:  a.y.makarenko@gmail.com  . 
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3020-0658   
****National  University  of  Life  and  Environmental  Sciences  of  Ukraine,  Kyiv,  Ukraine.  E-mail: 
kidalov_s@nubip.edu.ua . ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5743-6655   
*****National  University  of  Life  and  Environmental  Sciences  of  Ukraine,  Kyiv,  Ukraine.  E-mail:  
stanyanko7@gmail.com     . ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5082-8158 
 
 
1.- Introduction 
  The problem of reforming the prosecutor's office is  significant and relevant at the 
current stage of the development and functioning of our state because the prosecutor's 
office,  even  after  the  reform  and  the  introduction  of  significant  changes  to  the 
Constitution of Ukraine (first of all, the loss of general supervisory powers and pre-trial 
investigation), namely: the removal of Section VII "Prosecutor's Office » based on Law 
of Ukraine No. 1401-VIII dated 02.06.2016 (Law of Ukraine, 2016) and the addition of 
Article 131-1 (Law of Ukraine, 1996) to Chapter VIII of the Constitution of Ukraine, which 
regulates the three main functions of this body: 1) maintenance of public prosecution in 
court; 2) organization and procedural management of pre-trial investigations, resolution 
of other issues following the law during criminal proceedings, supervision of covert and 
other investigative and search actions of law enforcement agencies; 3) representation 
of the state's interests in court in exceptional cases and the manner specified by law; 
the prosecutor's office remains the primary law enforcement agency, implementing the 
function of procedural management of pre-trial investigations and acting as a particular 
"arbitrator" in the transfer of pre-trial investigation materials from one law enforcement 
agency to another in the event of several organizational and legal conflicts. 
   
  At the same time, the legal regime of martial law has a significant impact on the 
organization of the work of law enforcement agencies, with a significant increase in their 
powers and society's demands on these agencies. 
 

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Offenses against children in the occupied territories appear to be the most resonant,

apart from directly military ones, and therefore the issue of legal responsibility for sexual

and other violence against children in wartime is becoming more relevant.

Therefore, the activity of the prosecutor's office now requires efficiency, fairness,

maximum possible openness, and activity based on the principles of ensuring human

and citizen rights in order to restore public trust in this powerful law enforcement agency,

without cooperation with which procedural investigative activity and the forwarding of

pre-trial investigation materials are impossible to court.

In addition, Ukraine's path to the EU involves the effective implementation by the

state of the anti-corruption function, one of the most critical components of which is

implemented by the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office - a newly created unit

within the prosecutor's office that carries out procedural management of the activities

of NABU detectives and presents the materials of the pre-trial investigation in the High

Anti-Corruption Court (Order of the Prosecutor General's, 2020). Moreover, it is pretty

symbolic that the package of anti-corruption legislation together with the central anti-

corruption Law of Ukraine "On Prevention of Corruption" (Law of Ukraine, 2014a) and

the Law of Ukraine "On the Prosecutor's Office" (Law of Ukraine, 2014b) were adopted

on the same day, namely: 14.10 .2014. Moreover, only recently, after long delays, the

head of the specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office was appointed, which is an

essential step in reforming this department, considering the important social challenges.

2.- The aim of the study, Materials and methods

The purpose of this work is to analyze the level of effectiveness of the reform of the

prosecutor's office and to identify problematic points in terms of corporate social

responsibility.

General scientific and unique scientific methods of cognition were used to achieve

the goal, particularly dialectical, formal-logical, analysis, synthesis, systemic-structural,

comparative-legal, formal-legal, and prognostic.

Several scholars from various fields of law dealt with the problems of reforming

the prosecutor's office. Since the body has been in a state of reform for the last few

years (and not only) (the most significant changes of which, in our opinion, took place

with the adoption of the amendments as mentioned above to the Constitution of

Ukraine), the issue of the necessity and identification of ways to reform the prosecutor's

office is still relevant.

At the same time, active military actions, the death of tens of thousands of our

citizens in the war, and other global changes of a socio-political nature require a critical

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review of the principles of the prosecutor's office as a body that should have high trust

on the part of society.

Among the scientific output in the context of the researched issues during the

last few years, it is worth highlighting the works of V. Boyarova, L. Omelchuk, A.

Chornobai, A. Lapkina, M. Kostytskyi, N. Kushakova-Kostytska, A. Bondar, H.

Lopushniak, I. Verkhovod, and others, whose works have a significant impact in terms

of the problems of reforming the prosecutor's office and serve as a basis for analysis and

further scientific research.

In particular, P. Dikhtievsky and A. Babinskaya analyzed problematic issues of

the right of citizens to hold the position of the prosecutor in Ukraine (Dikhtievsky,

Babinskaya, 2018); A. Bondar – public participation in the process of reforming the

domestic prosecutor's office (Bondar, 2019); L. Omelchuk - the problems of reforming

the prosecutor's office in Ukraine in the context of the experience of Georgia (Omelchuk,

2019); A. Chernobay - in the light of constitutional changes (Chernobay, 2019); A.

Lapkin and T. Bodnaruk studied the main directions of reforming the prosecutor's office

at the current stage (Lapkin, Bodnaruk, 2020); M. Kostytskyi and N. Kushakova-

Kostytska studied worldview and psychological problems related to the change in the

constitutional status of the prosecutor's office in Ukraine (Kostytskyi, Kushakova-

Kostytska, 2019); V. Boyarov - individual issues of reforming the prosecutor's office

(Boyarov, 2019).

The problems of the functioning and activity of the system of new law

enforcement agencies, whose activities are aimed primarily at combating and preventing

corruption, were investigated in the work of Gulak O., Kurylo V., Dubchak L., Golovko

L., Holovii L. (Gulak et al., 2015; Gulak et al., 2021; Dubchak et al., 2021; Gulak et al.,

2022). Furthermore, public control over the activities of law enforcement agencies was

studied in a recent work by the co-authors of the same scientific work (Gulak et al.,

2023). In the context of writing the article, the work of Ladychenko V., Danyliuk Yu.,

Vasiuk O. et al. was used, which studied the peculiarities of ensuring security and law

and order at the level of local self-government bodies (Ladychenko et al., 2021a;

Ladychenko et al., 2021b; Vasiuk O. et al., 2020).

3.Results and Discussion

At this stage of reforming the prosecutor's office system through the prism of

social responsibility, it has not been fully studied.

V. Boyarov raises profound questions about the functioning of the prosecutor's

office, its assignment to one or another branch of government, and in general, the

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responsabilidad social de las empresas

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expediency of maintaining such an expensive body for the budget of the poorest country

in Europe, noting the following: "the appearance in the Criminal Procedure Code of

procedural heads (Article 36) is a purely political decision. It is quite possible that this

issue - leaving the pre-trial investigation in such a form as the functions of the

prosecutor's office - may be recognized by the Constitutional Court as not following the

Basic Law (but apparently, the authorities do not have the political will for this today)."

(Boyarov, 2019).

In turn, A. Chernobaj and S. Hrynevych raised a range of practical questions

related to adopting updated legislation. Thus, the developers of the Uuraina Law "On the

Prosecutor's Office," according to scientists: "... such important points of reorganization

as: "a significant number of vacancies that will be opened after the test selection of

prosecutors of local prosecutor's offices were not taken into account; the process of

lustration prescribed in the Law of Ukraine "On Purification of Power," which, even

according to the conclusion of the Venice Commission, was applied contrary to legal

methods and not following the Constitution and European standards; retirement of

prosecutors and investigators; similar processes of police reform" (Chernobay, 2019).

A. Cherbonai and S. Hrynevych believe that a whole series of novelties of this law have

significantly worsened the legal status of the prosecutor to some extent.

A. Lapkin and T. Bodnaruk, in their study on the topic: "The main directions of

the reform of the prosecutor's office at the current stage" (Lapkin, Bodnaruk, 2020),

analyze the main directions of the work of the prosecutor's office at the current stage,

since the adoption of the updated Law of Ukraine "On the Prosecutor's Office," carrying

out a constitutional reform on justice and making significant changes to the law as

mentioned above in 2019. The authors emphasize the inconsistency and heterogeneity

of the reform; the absence of a clear definition of the purpose, tasks, and functions of

the prosecutor's office since, in their opinion: "The purpose is too vague, the tasks at

the legislative level are not fixed, and the functions are reflected differently in the

Constitution of Ukraine and relevant legislation" (Lapkin, Bodnaruk, 2020). A. Lapkin

and T. Bodnaruk emphasize the difficulties in carrying out the procedure for selecting

candidates for the positions of prosecutors since the concepts of higher legal education

and work experience in the field of law are not defined in detail and are not normatively

fixed, which carries purely subjective and corruption factors.

The analysis of the specified scientific works gives reasons to state the following:

• The need to reform the prosecutor's office at the current stage is determined by

the following: public demand for the implementation of the rule of law and the

protection of human and citizen rights and freedoms; the need to comply with

the European integration obligations undertaken by Ukraine; getting rid of

outdated undemocratic vestiges.

• In Ukraine's application to join the Council of Europe (Conclusion No. 190 (1995)

of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, 1995), one of the

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obligations of Ukraine was to change the role and function of the prosecutor's

office by transforming it into a body that would meet the standards of the Council

of Europe, namely − requirements contained in the Recommendation of the

Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe "On the role of the prosecutor's

office in the criminal justice system" (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of

Europe, 1995).

• A whole series of regulatory amendments testify to Ukraine's intentions to

effectively and efficiently reform the domestic prosecutor's office into an effective

and transparent law enforcement body that would function on stable European

legal foundations, the priority of which would be based on ensuring human rights

and freedoms. Among the major transformations, the following should be noted:

deprivation of general supervisory powers, liquidation of investigative units, a

significant limitation of representation in court; creation of new prosecutorial self-

government bodies; implementation of retraining of prosecutorial employees;

integrity check.

• At the same time, several legal deficiencies were identified, which significantly

affect the organization of the practical activities of the prosecutor's office and

require further analysis and corresponding regulatory changes.

4.Conclusions

As part of the scientific research, an analysis of the effectiveness of the reform

of the prosecutor's office in terms of corporate social responsibility was carried out and

several problematic aspects were identified. In particular, the analysis of the scientific

development, the organization of the activities of the prosecutor's office at the current

stage of the development of Ukraine, the study of statistical data, in particular the level

of offenses, the materials of criminal proceedings committed, registered and brought to

court, the data of sociological studies and the effectiveness of the interaction of the law

enforcement system, the analysis of regulatory and legal changes regulating the

activities of prosecutor's offices in their retrospect made it possible to form some

conclusions:

• The need to reform the prosecutor's office at the current stage is determined by:

public demand for the implementation of the rule of law and the protection of

human and citizen rights and freedoms; the need to comply with the European

integration obligations undertaken by Ukraine; getting rid of outdated

undemocratic vestiges;

• Among the main progressive changes in the legal support of the activities of the

Ukrainian prosecutor's office, the following should be noted: deprivation of

general supervisory powers, liquidation of investigative units, a significant

limitation of representation in court; creation of new prosecutorial self-

government bodies; implementation of retraining of prosecutorial employees;

integrity check;

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• Within the scope of the study, several legal shortcomings were identified, which

significantly affects the organization of the practical activities of the prosecutor's

office, which require further analysis and corresponding regulatory changes.

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