Formation of the concept of «individual act» in legislation: history and modernity

The article examines the issue of the formation of the concept of «individual act» in legislation with regard to ancient history and modernity. Ukraine is at the stage of reforming state institutions and legislation in general. It is indicated that the study of the history of the formation of the category of individual actions makes it possible to follow the path of development because of mistakes made that affected the effectiveness of the application of the regulatory framework. It is noted that individual acts, within more general problems, have been the subject of scientific research, but the genesis of an individual act is understudied. Furthermore, it was analyzed that the normative acts of ancient times and the Middle Ages do not have a direct mention of the concept of an individual act or a public legal dispute. Instead, the nature of decision-making shows that such decisions have all the characteristics of individual acts. When researching the regulatory framework on the territory of Ukraine during the princely era and hetmanship, it was determined that in parallel with the expansion of functions and the increase of the state’s intervention in all spheres of public life, the need to control and limit the actions of government officials grew. It is noted that in the XIX - the beginning of the XX century, the laying of foundations in the formation of the category of public legal dispute was observed, in particular regarding the challenge of legal acts. A significant historical contribution to the development of administrative law is the Constitution of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. It is noted that the definition of the concept of an administrative act was in the legislative acts of the Soviet period. The development of administrative justice and the concept of an individual act is divided into three periods: a) from 1991 to the adoption of the Code of Administrative Justice of Ukraine; b) from 2005 to 2022 (taking into account the new version of the Code of Administrative Justice of Ukraine that entered into force on 15.12.2017; c) from 2022 to today, which is connected with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine «On Administrative Procedure» and the rapid harmonization of the legislation of Ukraine with the requirements for joining the EU. The article states that an individual act as the subject of a public legal dispute received its normative definition at the legislative level only after changes to the Civil Code of Ukraine in 2017. It was concluded that a common understanding of the definition of an individual act by the scientific community and the legislator is extremely important, as it forms a common approach to their application.