THE INSTITUTIONAL ROLE OF THE POLICE IN MAINTAINING CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER IN CONDITIONS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

This article explores the pivotal role of the police in maintaining constitutional order, particularly in the context of civil disobedience. Across different times and cultures, when public protests and social movements become a visible expression of political conflict, law enforcement agencies face a complex moral and legal challenge — to maintain public order without infringing on civil liberties. Prominent legal and political scholars emphasize that police actions, like any institutional intervention, must respect the rule of law and the principles of human rights protection, especially when efforts to suppress waves of public dissent may contradict the very essence of constitutionalism. The aim of this article is to analyze the institutional role of the police as a guarantor of constitutional order in the context of civil disobedience within Armenia’s political and legal framework. The analysis draws comparisons between domestic experience and international examples to identify mechanisms that allow for the simultaneous safeguarding of citizen freedoms and state stability. The article examines how the police act as protectors of the constitutional order while maintaining public order and upholding fundamental human rights. The main conclusion of the article is that institutional reform of the police and the strengthening of accountability mechanisms create the necessary conditions to reconcile the protection of constitutional order with the preservation of civil liberties.