An ineﬃcient legal norm: general theoretical characteristics
Authors: Volokhov Oleksii 
Published: December 2024

Legal reforms in Ukraine, which are sometimes accompanied by a shift in the priorities of the participants of the legislative process (who are trying to achieve political goals, obtain political dividends, or have a low level of rule-making technique), can lead to the implementation of ineﬀective legal norms that do not have a clear goal and do not contain mechanisms of legal regulation. Such legal norms may conflict with other norms; they aim not to achieve social goals and only partially correspond to existing social relations.

Therefore, there is a need to research such a legal category as an ineﬀective norm of law, the features of its adoption, and the reasons for ineﬀectiveness, criteria, and classification of such norms. After all, introducing responsibility for adopting an ineﬀective norm should be done by forming a clear concept and criteria for an inadequate norm.

An ineﬀective legal norm is a norm in legislation that is unable to achieve the set goal of legal regulation and ensure the interests of the state and society promote their interaction; such a rule is a consequence of a rule-making error and abuse of the right of the subject of rulemaking, neglect of the latest existing rules of rule-making technique.

The analysis of scientific approaches makes it possible to single out the main signs of an ineﬀective legal norm:
1. The impossibility of achieving the set goal of legal regulation, which means the presence of a goal set by the legislator that does not correspond to the current level of development of society and the state or the absence of eﬀective mechanisms of legal regulation.
2. Contradicts to the interests of the state and society. That means the legal norm was adopted contrary to the principles of law, international principles, and European standards, which place the interests of the state and society as the main object of legal regulation.
3. Does not comply with the rules of normative engineering (especially about other norms). The legal norm does not contain implementation mechanisms and stable legal terminology; the provisions and purpose of such a rule must be clarified and understandable for participants in legal relations.
4. Does not correspond to the current development of social relations. The legal norm contradicts specific moral or religious rules and beliefs, as well as the socioeconomic and political development of society at a particular stage, or, on the contrary, contains provisions that are not perceived equally by all participants of legal relations, considering their level of legal awareness.
5. Contradicts other norms of the law of higher legal force, which leads to collisions.
The number of signs characterizing an ineﬀective norm of law deals with its content and, therefore, arises already at the law-making initiative stage, when the norm’s purpose and project are formed.

Due to the legislator’s mistakes and defects in the Rulemaking Process, the ineﬃcient norms can be separated into fictitious norms, norms with negative eﬀectiveness, and defective norms.

The identification of ineﬃcient norms and their elimination should be the focus of legislators, scientists, and active members of civil society. In addition, the study of the institution of responsibility for developing and adopting ineﬃcient norms requires special attention. The development of the institution of responsibility for developing and adopting ineﬀective norms requires special attention because this issue should be the subject of separate scientific investigations.

Key words: an ineﬃcient legal norm, classification of an ineﬀective legal norm, defects of the Rulemaking Process, criteria of an ineﬃcient legal norm.