legal doctrine

The article contains the analysis of the development history of the national sovereignty
doctrine and legitimacy of the government in France during the nineteenth century. It
indicates that the mentioned doctrine is significantly different from the one offered by Jean
Jacques Rousseau in the eighteenth century. It was based on the idea of natural human rights,
which are the main criteria for democratic legitimation, and the idea that legitimacy is not a
constant feature of public authority and therefore requires constant moral recognition within

The analysis of the history of formation and development of the idea of people’s sovereignty in Ukrainian legal thought was performed. It was mentioned that the doctrine of sovereignty of the people in Ukraine which had been formulated at the end of the 19th century – in the first quarter of the 20th century, despite of coming from European legal tradition includedsome particular features which were typical for the peoples deprived of national independence and sovereignty.