The essence of legal relations associated with retirement

The paper discusses the essence of pension legal relations. Pension legal relations are concluded to be inherently economic. The emphasis is placed on the notion that the foundations of state social security policies are generally shifting from paternalistic to neo-paternalistic. At the heart of pension systems regulated by the law lie the economic calculations. It is argued that the efficiency of pensions is achieved by taking into account the economic laws of the formation of the pension system, as well as the legal registration of the latter, subject to the rules of legal technique. Nevertheless, the legal system, as a regulator of social relations, does not only control the pension relationship, but acts as its installer. It is established that the pension legal relations can not exist outside law. Based on the study of the legal nature of pension relations, its definition is given. The study provides an overview of the pension system of Ukraine, which includes three levels (solidarity pension system, universal accumulative system and non-state funded pension system). The paper does not only conclude that pension relations are economic in their essence, but also points out significant impact of pension systems on micro- and macro-economic performance of the economy of the state.