Internal Conviction of Law Enforcement Subjects: Philosophical and Legal Analysis of the Problem and the Ancient Greek Method of Solution
Abstract
Abstract. According to sociological research, by the beginning of 2023, 3 % of Ukrainian citizens from among the surveyed respondents trust the judicial system, and 49 % of them do not trust law enforcement agencies at all, which indicates a critical situation and an urgent need to find the causes of such distrust and ways to solve this situation on a theoretical basis and practical levels. Scientific novelty. In this article, the author tries to convince for the first time that the reason for such a low level of trust of citizens in law enforcement and judicial bodies is the legalized possibility of them making procedural decisions based on their inner conviction, which in practice often turns into arbitrariness. It is obvious that the possibility of adopting diametrically opposite decisions in a case on the basis of the same evidence does not promote trust in law enforcement subjects on the part of citizens and does not strengthen their authority in the eyes of the public. The author believes that one of the possible ways to solve this problem is to turn to the heritage of ancient Greek philosophy of law, in particular the works of Aristotle, who first developed ways to solve legal issues through logical procedures of proof, without the use of any internal beliefs, intuition or guesswork. Methodology. During the preparation of the article, using the methods of analysis, synthesis and generalization, a number of primary sources and the latest publications on the issues of philosophical and legal analysis of internal conviction (discretion) in the adoption of procedural decisions by law enforcement subjects were processed. The methods of deductive-logical analysis, as well as inductive generalization, probabilistic-statistical estimates and analogy were used to substantiate the results and formulate the conclusions of the conducted research. Practical significance. On the basis of the points raised in this article, a discussion should be started with further elaboration and improvement of the conclusions made by the author with their inclusion in the current legislation. Such changes, in the opinion of the author, will provide every decision of law enforcement subjects with the opportunity to be reasoned and understandable, and most importantly – the only possible one in a specific situation, which will make it impossible or at least significantly reduce subjectivity in its adoption, and therefore strengthen trust in law enforcement and judicial bodies and will increase their authority.
Keywords: philosophy of law; inner conviction; discretion; legal argumentation; evidentiary criteria; ancient Greek philosophy of law.
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