Genesis and evolution of legal regulation for preventing official abuse in the context of digitalisation of public administration

Abstract

The article provides a systematic historical-legal and comparative-legal analysis of the genesis and evolution of legal regulation of preventing official abuses under the conditions of digitalization of public administration in Ukraine. The author methodologically distinguishes between the concepts of “official abuse”, “official misconduct”, “corruption offence”, “legal regulation of prevention”, “digitalization of public administration” and “e-governance”. The genesis of the legal regulation is traced from the norms of the Lithuanian Statutes of the sixteenth century and the codification of the “Rights by which the Little Russian people are judged” of 1743 to the Code of Criminal and Correctional Punishments of 1845 and the Soviet Criminal Codes of the UkSSR of 1922, 1927 and 1960, in which the repressive-punitive model dominated without a preventive-digital component. The principal shift of 2014–2021 is identified, associated with the establishment of the institutional triad NACP–NABU–SAPO, the High Anti-Corruption Court and the launch of Prozorro, the Unified Register of Electronic Declarations and ProZorro.Sale, which formed the paradigm of proactive prevention through data. The impact of the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine No. 13-r/2020 of 27 October 2020 on the stability of the digital architecture of prevention and its restoration by Law No. 3384-IX of 2023 is analysed. The digital transformation of 2019–2022 is highlighted (Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Diia portal, BankID, ID.GOV.UA, the Trembita integration bus) as an independent anti-corruption mechanism. The paradox of the wartime period 2022–2024 is separately investigated: restrictions on access to public registers under Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 209 of 6 March 2022 simultaneously with the implementation of the Digital Services Act, NIS2, eIDAS 2.0 and GDPR. The author’s six-stage periodization of the evolution of legal regulation is proposed, and recommendations are formulated regarding the codification of the digital component of official offences, algorithmic accountability and the balance between digital transparency and the protection of personal data.