The concept of duty as an element of the legal status of a person
Authors: Popovych T.P. 
Published: December 2023

One of the methods of legal regulation of social relations is the establishment by the state of certain duties for its citizens. It is the obligation as an instrument of legal regulation that allows to create a balance between the interests of the individual, society and the state. That is why in Art. 23 of the Constitution of Ukraine states: "Every person has the right to the free development of his personality, if the rights and freedoms of other people are not violated, and he has obligations to the society in which the free and comprehensive development of his personality is ensured.” That is, a person, being in society, constantly interacts with other people. Accordingly, it cannot fail to have obligations towards society, citizens and the state. Therefore, duties are undoubtedly as important elements of legal status as rights and freedoms.

The relevance of the study of legal status in general and duty as its structural element, in particular, is determined by their importance for the existence of a person in society. Therefore, in a philosophical dimension, the legal status secures the achieved level of personal freedom, acts as an important means of effectively meeting the needs and interests of each person, creating and using conditions for its comprehensive development. In addition, the significance of the phenomenon of legal status is reflected in its ability to increase the level of legal certainty, in particular, thanks to legal status, we can understand who a particular subject of law is in particular social relations; in which social relations and to what extent this subject can participate; in what way, on what grounds, conditions, a certain legal subject participates in social relations and how the corresponding subject will leave these relations or exactly how these relations should be terminated.

Duty as an element of the legal status of a person, in turn, is one of the central elements in jurisprudence. Moreover, the level of legal awareness and legal culture in society depends on the proper functioning of the system of duties. In addition, according to the philosophical encyclopedic dictionary, duty is one of the main categories of ethics and moral consciousness, a moral obligation of an individual, a group of persons, a class, a nation, etc., which appears to them as a concrete practical task. That is, duty is a multifaceted category that is of exceptional importance in various spheres of social life, which causes special interest in its research. In addition, a separate prerequisite for the study of the duty category is the embodiment of the will and interests of the entire society in it, since the duty reflects the variant of behavior that is the most acceptable and socially useful.

However, in the course of studies of the legal status of citizens, attention is mostly focused on the category of rights and freedoms, which, of course, form its basis, but they cannot be properly implemented without its other components, namely duties. Moreover, non-fulfillment of the duties specifically assigned to citizens entails a number of negative consequences both for society as a whole and for the state, in particular, the above­mentioned balance of interests is violated and the basis for potential social conflicts is created. Thus, both human rights and freedoms and human responsibilities are integral elements of legal status, however, in this article, attention will be focused on the study of the category of responsibility through the lens of legal status.