Enshrining legal coercion as a prerogative of the rule of law

Purpose of the article is to study legal coercion as one of the traditional state management methods from the standpoint of the exclusive prerogative of the state to implement it. Methodology. The research uses a natural-law approach and a number of methods aimed at a systematic and meaningful analysis of the problems of state coercion, the most important of which are generalization, dialectical, historical and integrative methods. Results: it is resoned that the following grounds are necessary for the application of coercion: 1) the legal basis presupposes the presence of legal norms that provide for the possibility of applying coercion to certain subjects in concrete cases; 2) the factual basis presupposes the occurrence of the legal event provided for in the law - the event or act which generated the legal relationship; 3) the formal basis implies the issuing by the state body of the act of application of the law ordering the application of the constraint to a specific subject. The coercion as a physical action is applied by special state bodies on the basis of a court decision or administrative act. In the absence of such acts, coercion cannot be exercised. It is emphasized that the legal coercion applied by the state must involve proportionate measures and sanctions, in such a way that, on the one hand, it creates the necessary inhibiting factors in the conscience of those who would try to break the law and, on the other hand, it strengthens the feeling of security in others, inspiring them with the conviction that the law, the state, protects them and that they should not resort to non-state, unofficial means in order to take the law into their own hands. It is absolutely essential that the application of coercion should not be used to infringe the rights and freedoms of individuals or to cause physical or mental suffering. Only in such a situation will legal coercion contribute to the formation of the ethical attitude of citizens, increasing their psychological readiness to respect the law. Originality. This is one of the first studies devoted to the issue of legal coercion as the context of its use by the state in order to exercise its power in modern political and legal realities, including taking into account the experience of state formation in the Republic of Moldova. Practical significance. The results of the study can contribute to the improvement of law enforcement and human rights protection activities, to increase the level of legal culture at the current stage of social development, primarily in countries freed from communist totalitarianism.
Key words: state, law, rule of law, legality, legal act, coercion, legal coercion, normativity.