LEGAL REGULATION OF NAVAL FORCES ACTIVITY: WORLD EXPERIENCE
Authors: Yevhen BORYSOV 
Published: September 2021

Background. The analysis of the evolution of the regulation of the navy cannot be carried out without considering the reflection of the relevant aspects in the naval historical thought. These scientific researches first of all have no legal orientation and have as their subject the content and nature of the activity of the navy, in particular in measuring its formation and development. At the same time, their generalization and evaluation in the legal dimension would be useful in the context of determining the relationship between historical thought and the development of naval law. An analysis of recent research and publications has shown that, despite aspects of the attention of legal historians to the issue of regulatory support of the armed forces, there is no relevant works on the evolution of the legal regulation of the navy. The aim of the article is to correlate global historical thought and legal support for the activities of the navy. To solve this goal, it is necessary to determine the development of relevant historical thought, to characterize its implementation in the works on naval doctrine and strategy, to assess the importance of relevant works for the development of naval law. Materials and methods. In the course of the research historical-legal, comparative, systemic, epistemological, hermeneutic, biographical methods were used. Results. The reflection of aspects of legal regulation of activity of naval forces in works of historians of fleet is investigated. The formation of the history of the navy from the seventeenth century in terms of special research and works on naval tactics and strategy is considered. It is proved that at the first stage these researches had the character of empirical generalization and provision of tactical activity of the sailing and then mechanized fleet, but from the end of the XIX century this experience was gained in the development of a maritime strategy. Conclusion. Historical studies of naval development first emerged at the appropriate scientific level as part of the development of naval tactics and strategies by French, British and American authors, whose works constitute an interconnected universal and universally recognized system of scientific research begun in the late seventeenth century. At the first stage, these studies were in the nature of empirical generalization and ensuring the tactical activities of the sailing and then mechanized fleet. But from the end of the XIX century this experience was gained in the development of a naval strategy, which gained universal character and indisputable authority for the naval forces of the most countries. In addition to use in works on naval tactics and strategy, the history of the navy from the eighteenth century reflected in biographical works, and in the twentieth century the most of the relevant historical works began to have the character of memoirs. Because the world-renowned fundamental works on naval strategy and tactics belong primarily to American and British authors, the domestic dimension of historical scientific research in this area is extremely limited. Thus, these issues require new research. Keywords: naval forces, history of navy, naval law, naval doctrine, naval strategy.