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Journal of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine

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The evolution of the category of legal responsibility: a national and international scholarly review

Natalia N. Onishchenko

Received 21.07.2026, Revised 21.08.2026, Accepted 30.09.2026

Abstract

Legal responsibility is a fundamental area of general legal theory and encompasses issues connected with the development of the state, statehood, law, and the legal system. Despite a long history of scholarly inquiry, the content, features, and boundaries of this category remain subject to debate, requiring further reconsideration of approaches established in legal doctrine. The purpose of the article is to provide a comprehensive theoretical and legal examination of the development of legal responsibility and to generalise the principal approaches to its understanding in national and international law. The study applies an integrated approach to legal definitions and scholarly concepts, formal-logical, systemic, and comparative legal methods, as well as the generalisation of doctrinal positions on the nature and content of legal responsibility. The article traces the definitional development of this category and its place within the system of legal instruments, analyses the relationship between legal, moral, and ethical responsibility, examines the positive and negative dimensions of legal responsibility, and substantiates the priority of its traditional retrospective understanding. This approach allows legal responsibility to be distinguished more clearly from legal encouragement while recognising other legal constructions associated with adverse legal consequences. A separate area of inquiry concerns international legal responsibility, which is proposed to be understood through the legal relations and consequences arising from legally significant conduct of a subject of international law. Particular attention is devoted to responsibility for damage caused by lawful activities and its relationship with liability without fault. These constructions differ in their legal nature, while corresponding models exist in both international and national law. The practical significance of the study lies in using its findings to deepen understanding of the content and legal nature of legal responsibility and to further examine the transformations of this category in contemporary legal scholarship.

Keywords:

positive responsibility; negative responsibility; retrospective concept; legal encouragement; international legal responsibility; international liability

https://doi.org/10.31359/1993-0909.2026.33.3.17

Retrieved from Journal NALSU №3, 2026 year

Pages 17-34

References Suggested citation

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Suggested citation

Natalia N. Onishchenko (2026). The evolution of the category of legal responsibility: a national and international scholarly review. Journal of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, 33(3), 17-34. https://doi.org/10.31359/1993-0909.2026.33.3.17