Integrity and Legal Ideology: A Question of Correlation

 Dmytro BYELOV

Myroslava BIELOVA

Abstract: The article is devoted to the theoretical and legal analysis of the corre­lation between integrity and legal ideology in a modern democratic society. The methodology combines a general theoretical analysis of legal doctrine with a com­parative review of domestic and foreign scholarship on the moral-legal nature of integrity, complemented by a formal-legal examination of Ukrainian anti-corrup­tion legislation. The starting premise is that integrity functions simultaneously as a moral principle and a legal category that provides the ethical foundation on which fundamental legal values, justice, equality, and legality, are built, and through which legal ideology, understood as the system of ideas reflecting society’s attitude toward law, is itself formed. The article examines competing scholarly approaches to defining integrity, from R. Schramm’s ethically neutral reading of the bona fides/mala fides distinction to multidimensional models that treat integrity as en­compassing moral-ethical, socio-psychological, socio-cultural, political, legal, and economic dimensions, as well as narrower, applied conceptions tied to honesty, transparency, and accountability of public officials. It further analyses how these theoretical constructs are operationalised in Ukraine’s civil service system through the Law of Ukraine „On Prevention of Corruption”, the National Agency on Cor­ruption Prevention, electronic asset declaration, lifestyle monitoring, and conflict-of-interest procedures. The article concludes that integrity operates both as a pre­ventive anti-corruption mechanism and as a determinant of public trust in state in­stitutions, and that its practical implementation in Ukraine relies on a comprehen­sive combination of legislative, institutional, and ethical instruments. Strengthen­ing this framework further will require the integration of new technological tools, enhanced public oversight, and international cooperation in countering corrup­tion.

Keywords: integrity, legal ideology, public service, anti-corruption regulation, rule of law.

Introduction

Integrity, as a moral category and a fundamental principle of law, plays a key role in shaping the legal ideol­ogy of a modern democratic society. It functions as a distinctive ethical foundation on which the system of legal values and norms governing the interaction between citizens and the state is built.

Legal ideology, understood as a system of legal ideas, principles, and concepts reflecting people’s attitude toward existing or desired law, is directly connected to integrity through the shared nature of their underlying values. It is precisely through the prism of integrity that basic conceptions of justice, equality, legality, and other legal values forming the core of legal ideology are shaped.

The relevance of studying the cor­relation between integrity and legal ideology stems from the need to build effective mechanisms for en­suring the rule of law and developing a law-governed state. Under contem­porary conditions, it becomes partic­ularly important to understand how the moral imperatives of integrity are transformed into legal norms and principles, thereby forming the ideo­logical foundation of the legal sys­tem.

The correlation between integrity and legal ideology has been exam­ined by Ukrainian scholars such as S.V. Pohrebniak, O.O. Bandura, and S.P. Pohrebniak, whose works reveal the theoretical foundations of integ­rity as a legal category. Foreign re­searchers R. Dworkin, L. Fuller, and J. Rawls have focused on analysing the influence of moral values on the formation of legal ideology. Particu­lar attention to judicial integrity has been paid by S.V. Prylutskyi and O.M. Ovcharenko. Representatives of the natural-law school, H.L.A. Hart and J. Finnis, have made an important contribution to under­standing the relationship between law and morality by examining the role of moral principles in the legal sys­tem. Contemporary approaches to understanding integrity as a compo­nent of legal culture are developed by M.I. Koziubra and P.M. Rabinovych.

The aim of the study is a theoreti­cal-legal analysis of certain aspects of the correlation between integrity and legal ideology, the identification of their mutual influence, and the determination of the mechanisms for the practical implementation of the principles of integrity in the context of shaping contemporary legal ideol­ogy.

Integrity as an Ethical-Legal Category: The Interaction of Morality and Law

Legal ideology, as a system of le­gal ideas and concepts, includes in­tegrity among its core elements. In this context, integrity functions both as an ethical standard for representa­tives of public authority and as a le­gal principle regulating the activity of state bodies. It contributes to building public trust in authority and ensuring the rule of law by establishing clear ethical requirements for the conduct of officials and directing their activity toward the protection of public inter­ests.

Within legal ideology, integrity emerges as a system of principles forming the value foundations of the work of state bodies. It acts as a key component directing the activity of public authority toward ensuring public interests and observing the rule of law. Through legal ideology, which unites legal theories and con­cepts, integrity influences the formation of legal consciousness and models of lawful behaviour¹.

Analysing integrity through the prism of the interaction between mo­rality and law is key to understanding its essence. Discussions on the rela­tionship between morality and law take place across various social sci­ences – jurisprudence, philosophy, sociology, and ethics. The ambiguity of this relationship is likewise re­flected in the understanding of the category of “integrity”, where the question of the degree of its moral-legal nature arises.

A significant contribution to the discussion on the nature of integrity was made by the legal scholar R. Schramm. He denied any moral con­tent to the concept of bona fides (good faith/integrity), arguing that it cannot be equated with honesty or moral qualities. According to his conception, bona fides simply de­notes ignorance or error, while mala fides (bad faith) denotes knowledge. He thus treated these categories as ethically neutral, devoid of moral colouring².

In the context of the interaction between morality and law, integrity acts as an important ethical-legal category that the legislator employs in normative acts to give legal rela­tions a moral dimension. When ana­lysing integrity as a legal category, it is necessary to focus specifically on its technical-legal consolidation in legal norms, in particular, to consider it as an evaluative concept.

In studying integrity, scholars de­fine it as an evaluative category that is interpreted differently depending on the subject, situation, and social and legal context. This, in turn, con­firms the abstract character of integ­rity and the existence of diverse ap­proaches to its understanding.

The Multicomponent Nature and Dimensions of Integrity in Legal Doctrine

According to researcher M. Prylipko, integrity as a social institu­tion embodies in public conscious­ness ideas about the values and per­sonal qualities necessary for the ex­ercise of the functions of the state and local self-government, in partic­ular in the sphere of legislative and executive power and justice. These qualities manifest themselves in the conduct of an official both during and outside the performance of official duties. The scholar considers that integrity should be analysed along six dimensions: moral-ethical (the spir­itual qualities of the official), socio-psychological (value orientations), socio-cultural (the level of develop­ment of society), political (the foun­dation of citizens’ trust), legal (nor­mative requirements of conduct), and economic (rational consumption). Integrity may additionally be exam­ined from other perspectives – soci­ological, philosophical, pedagogical, and so on – depending on the aim and objectives of a particular study³.

4. Kyrylenko emphasises pre­cisely the multicomponent nature of the phenomenon of integrity and con­siders that it encompasses such com­ponents as the honesty of officials, transparency, accountability, and compliance with codes of ethics and the law. Maintaining the integrity of civil servants and local self-govern­ment officials is of decisive im­portance for fostering trust, confi­dence, and legitimacy in public in­stitutions and for ensuring the proper functioning of a democratic society⁴.

Integrity may be considered in two key aspects. In a broad sense, it is a complex category combining moral-ethical principles, legal norms, and philosophical concepts, reflecting general conceptions of proper con­duct and high standards of integrity in society. In a narrower sense, integ­rity acquires a more applied character – it manifests itself in specific spheres of human and social activity, where it has a clear practical orientation and application. This may concern pro­fessional activity, civil service, edu­cation, or other fields where integrity is embodied in concrete rules of con­duct and standards⁵.

Examining integrity in the context of preventing conflicts of interest in public service, O. Tokar-Ostapenko defines it as an important element of anti-corruption legislation. The integ­rity of officials, manifested through their moral-ethical and psychological qualities, serves as a safeguard against the emergence of conflicts of interest in the performance of official duties, underscoring its important role as a preventive anti-corruption mechanism⁶.

In her research on integrity as a principle of state power, O. Tomkina emphasises that the concept of “in­tegrity” is a basic ethical category. In her view, integrity reflects the sub­jective manifestation of moral norms and is expressed through stable posi­tive moral and psychological char­acteristics of the personality. In a broad sense, integrity characterises the high moral level of representa­tives of public authority, whose ac­tivity is oriented toward achieving the public good and ensuring the interests of both individual citizens and society as a whole⁷.

Practical Implementation of Integrity in Ukraine’s Civil Service System

The Law of Ukraine “On Preven­tion of Corruption” became an im­portant step in reforming the civil service system and combating cor­ruption. One of the most significant achievements of this law was the creation of a specialised body – the National Agency on Corruption Pre­vention (NACP), which was granted the authority to shape and implement the state’s anti-corruption policy.

The legislation introduced a com­prehensive approach to ensuring the integrity of public servants through several key mechanisms. In particu­lar, detailed procedures were devel­oped for identifying and managing conflicts of interest. An innovative system of financial control over offi­cials was introduced, based on elec­tronic declaration of assets and in­come, their thorough verification at various levels, and public access to this information. Additionally, mon­itoring of the correspondence be­tween officials’ lifestyle and their official income is carried out.

The law also established funda­mental ethical principles for civil servants, including the rule of law, protection of human rights, impar­tiality in political matters, and objec­tivity in decision-making. In addition, a number of restrictions were intro­duced regarding additional employ­ment, working with relatives, em­ployment after the end of civil ser­vice, and the receipt of gifts. To­gether, all these innovations form an integral system aimed at preventing corruption through a combination of preventive measures with clear rules and restrictions for public servants⁸.

Civil servants play a decisive role in state-building processes, perform­ing the direct functions of public au­thorities in accordance with legisla­tion and official duties. Their effec­tiveness depends on two equally im­portant components. The first is pro­fessional competence: proper profes­sional training, specialised knowledge, and the ability to apply it in practice. The second, no less im­portant, component consists of per­sonal moral-ethical qualities, since a civil servant is a public figure subject to particular requirements regarding integrity and ethical conduct. Alt­hough integrity was not singled out as a separate principle of civil service in historical documents, its compo­nents, honesty and virtue, were im­portant requirements for representa­tives of authority on Ukrainian lands. These moral-ethical norms, recorded in historical sources on public ad­ministration, may be regarded as precursors of the modern concept of civil-service integrity⁹.

The formation of a system of honest and professional civil service extends beyond purely organisational and legal issues. The system encom­passes ensuring impartiality in politi­cal and administrative decision-making, identifying potential threats to the integrity of officials, prevent­ing unacceptable conflicts of interest, and implementing mechanisms for managing and resolving conflict situ­ations¹⁰.

Conclusions

Integrity constitutes a fundamen­tal principle of law and a moral cate­gory that shapes the legal ideology of a democratic society through a sys­tem of values, norms, and principles governing the interaction between citizens and the state. In the scholarly literature, integrity is treated as a multidimensional phenomenon en­compassing moral-ethical, socio-psy­chological, legal, and economic di­mensions. It functions both as an ethical standard for representatives of public authority and as a legal princi­ple regulating the activity of state bodies.

The practical implementation of the principle of integrity in Ukraine is ensured through a comprehensive system of mechanisms, including anti-corruption legislation, codes of ethics, electronic declaration, and monitoring of the lifestyle of civil servants, which contributes to in­creasing public trust in state institu­tions.

The correlation between integrity and legal ideology manifests itself through the formation of value ori­entations in society that influence the development of legal culture and legal consciousness of citizens. Integ­rity functions not only as a theoretical concept but also as a practical in­strument for ensuring the proper functioning of state institutions and the development of civil society.

In the context of contemporary challenges, further improvement of the mechanisms for ensuring integ­rity is of particular relevance, in par­ticular through the introduction of innovative technologies, the strength­ening of public oversight, and inter­national cooperation in countering corruption. This will contribute to strengthening the democratic foun­dations of public administration and increasing the effectiveness of the functioning of Ukraine’s legal sys­tem.

Notes

• Dmytro Bielov, Myroslava Bielova, “Integrity in Public Authorities as an Element of the Legal Ideology of Modern Society”, Naukovyi Visnyk Uzhhorodskoho Natsionalnoho Universytetu, Seriia Pravo, Issue 86, Part 5, 2025, p. 213.
• Thomas Schramm, “Treu und Glauben im deutschen Rechtssystem: Eine ethische Perspektive”, Zeitschrift für Rechtsphilosophie, Band 17, 2019, S. 46.
• Mykola Prylipko, “The Institute of Integrity as a Condition for Estab­lishing the Rule of Law in a Legal Democratic State”, Naukovyi Visnyk Mizhnarodnoho Humanitarnoho Universytetu, Ser.: Yurysprudentsiia, Nr. 54, Vol. 1, 2021, p. 90.
• Petro Kyrylenko, “Integrity in Public Administration: From Ideal to an In­strument for Preventing Corruption”, Efektyvnist derzhavnoho upravlinnia, Issue 1/2 (74/75), 2023, p. 31.
• Nataliia Kaminska, “Integrity: Socio-Legal Content and Significance for Contemporary Reforms”, Filosofski ta metodolohichni problemy prava, Nr. 2 (26), 2023, p. 33.
• Olha Tokar-Ostapenko, “Peculiari­ties of Exercising Public Control over Integrity and the Prevention of Con­flicts of Interest in Public Service”, Stratehichni priorytety, Nr. 4 (33), 2014, p. 40.
• Olha Tomkina, “The Principle of Integrity of State Power: Statement of the Problem”, Visnyk Natsionalnoi akademii pravovykh nauk Ukrainy, Nr. 1 (76), 2014, pp. 65-70.
• National Integrity System Assess­ment, Transparency International Ukraine, 2016, https://ti-ukraine.org/ wp-content/uploads/2016/11/nis_as-sessment_ukr_0.pdf, (accessed 2.09. 2026).
• Kateryna Chechenko, “The Principle of Integrity of Civil Service: Etymology and Genesis of the Moral-Ethical Norm”, Kyivskyi chasopys prava, Nr. 1, 2022, p. 144.
• Nataliia Korchak, Oksana Parkhomenko-Kutsevil, “Integrity of a Civil Servant: Ethical and Legal Dimensions”, Yurydychnyi visnyk, Nr. 2 (59), 2021, p. 79.

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BIELOV, Dmytro, BIELOVA, Myroslava, “Integrity in Public Authorities as an Element of the Legal Ideology of Modern Society”, Naukovyi Visnyk Uzhhorodskoho Natsionalnoho Universytetu, Seriia Pravo, Issue 86, Part 5, 2025, pp. 213–218.

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