The Hierarchy of Fundamental Rights

The article is devoted to the study of the hierarchy of fundamental human rights in Ukraine and Germany.

Following a comparative analysis of Ukrainian and German doctrines on fundamental human rights, the nature of the hierarchy of fundamental human rights is investigated and the conditions under which this hierarchy of human rights is possible is determined.

The study made it possible to formulate a number of conclusions. Ukrainian legal science and practice have different approaches to recognizing the hierarchy of fundamental human rights. If at the level of national science there is no agreed position on the existence or non-existence of such a hierarchy, then at the level of decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, it not only recognizes, but also builds up a "hierarchical pyramid" of the human rights system headed by the right to human dignity.

The hierarchy of fundamental human rights does not mean that individual fundamental rights (the right to human dignity, the right to life) have more weight or significance than other basic human rights. Fundamental human rights have equal value and constitutional status, and therefore must be equally guaranteed and guaranteed by the Ukrainian state and society.

There is an urgent need to develop a national methodology for “weighing” basic human rights. It should be a tool for resolving legal conflicts of competition for fundamental human rights. As a benchmark for developing such a technique, one can take a German counterpart, which contains a list of criteria, using which one can determine which human right and why it will take priority over another fundamental right.