‘Secrecy Regime’: Consistency of Legislative Terminology

The article examines the consistency of the legislative terminological definition of the concept of a ‘secrecy regime’. It is noted that the effective protection of state secrets is ensured by a comprehensive combination of various measures, the introduction of which must be legal, timely, reasonable and justified. Considering the dynamic processes that are constantly taking place in the field of the state secret protection and the need to respond effectively to various threats that emerge, it is necessary, in particular, to review both the existing terminology in order to confirm its compliance with modern realities and objectivity of definitions with the aim to apply correctly the system of security measures and to conduct the record of offences in a proper way. The results of the study made it possible to state that the aspect of ‘regime’ pertaining to concept of ‘secrecy regime’ is a special form of state regulation of activities in the field of the use of state secrets. In particular, the efficient application of the aforesaid regime influences the level of national security. The results of the study made it possible to conclude that the application of the ‘secrecy’ concept is not correct because it narrows the understanding of the ‘secrecy regime’ term and does not include the comprehensive application of all necessary regime measures. The author proposed to replace the term ‘secrecy regime’ with a new concept: “ ‘the regime of state secrets protection’ that presumes the introduction of a set of legislatively defined measures aimed at ensuring the lawful use of state secrets’”. The author as well defines the structure of the state secret protection regime: state secret is the object; state bodies, local self-government bodies and their officials exercising the powers to use state secrets is the subject; legislative provisions and a set of regime measures are the means of implementation of that regime.