Correlation of the concepts “Constitution” and “Charter”: etymological and legal rationale and modern practical application

The author in the presented article made an attempt to draw the attention of the scientific community to the study of the concept of “charter” as one of the main constituent legal acts that did not find their proper, comprehensive study, in contrast to another constituent act, which is the “constitution”. Although the word “constitution” is of Latin origin, and the word “charter”, according to etymology, is of Old Slavonic, they have the same explanation, meaning establishment. The article proposes the idea that if the constitution, through the method of establishment, fixes the foundations of the organization of state formations, then the charter — the legal status of something — can be state formations (for example, the legal system of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, except for the republics, is headed by the corresponding charters or activities of municipalities also regulated at the level of statutes), for the most part, the main constituent acts of organizations — legal entities of any organizational and legal form are statutes or even a certain area of activity (for example, military regulations are in force in the military sphere). In addition, international charters may now have the status of international agreements that have established certain international organizations (for example, the UN Charter). The concept of “charter”, due to its large species and functional diversity, can be formulated as follows — this is the main constituent legal act that fixes the legal status of a state entity, organization, legal entity or establishes the organization of a certain field of activity.