A PUBLIC ELECTRONIC REGISTER: CONCEPT, FEATURES, MEANING

Abstract

The Law of Ukraine ‘On Public Electronic Registers’ was passed on 18 November 2021. This Law, in particular, contains a legal definition of a public electronic register. A comprehensive understanding of this concept is important to distinguish public electronic registers from other databases which may operate. Taking this into account, it is necessary to determine what features an information and communication system must meet in order to be considered a public electronic register and analyse these features. The purpose of the article is to analyse the concept of a public electronic register by identifying and characterising its features. To meet the purpose, the paper first analyses the features of a public electronic register which directly follow from its legal definition. After that, the article determines aspects of publicity of electronic registers which allow distinguishing public electronic registers from other information and communication systems. The study methodology is based on the formal logic techniques (induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis, generalisation, analogy), which help to analyse the concept of a public electronic register by identifying and characterizing its features. The scientific novelty manifests itself in the fact that the article provides an analysis of the features of a public electronic registry – those which directly follow from its legal definition and those which explain the publicity of electronic registries. The author concludes that a public electronic register may be defined as an information and communication system which is owned by the state, a territorial community or a self-regulatory organisation and performs the functions of collecting, accumulating, protecting, recording, displaying, processing and providing register information which is accessible, complete, up-to-date and presumed to be reliable. The features of a public electronic registry are as follows: a public electronic registry is an information and communication system; a public electronic registry performs the functions of collecting, accumulating, protecting, recording, displaying, processing and providing information; a public electronic registry performs such functions in relation to specifically defined register information; a public electronic registry is owned by the state, a territorial community or a self-regulatory organisation; the creation of a public electronic registry is related to rule-making activities.