Legal certainty of the status of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine as a special-purpose law enforcement agency

Abstract

This article provides a scientific and legal analysis of the legal status of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine as a specialized law enforcement agency in the context of contemporary security challenges and the need to improve the regulatory framework governing its activities. The focus is on the fact that the current Law of Ukraine “On the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine” establishes the status of the border guard service but does not provide a comprehensive legal definition of this body as an institution, limiting itself primarily to structural and organizational characteristics. Such legislative ambiguity complicates the unambiguous interpretation of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine’s place within the security and defense sector, creates gaps in law enforcement, and negatively impacts the effectiveness of interagency cooperation with other law enforcement entities. The necessity of distinguishing the concept of the State Border Guard Service and its organizational structure in accordance with the requirements of legislative drafting is substantiated, as is the advisability of enshrining the definition of the State Border Guard Service in a separate article of the relevant law. Particular attention is paid to doctrinal approaches to understanding the category of “special-purpose law enforcement agency,” which is actively used in legislation but remains insufficiently standardized and ambiguous in the academic literature. Based on the views of scholars, the key characteristics of special-purpose agencies have been identified, including the specificity of tasks in the field of national security, special operating conditions, heightened requirements for personnel, and functional specialization. The conclusion is drawn that further improvement of the legislative regulation of the status of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine is necessary to ensure legal certainty, the effective performance of border functions, and the establishment of an appropriate model of democratic control in the field of national security.