Issue: № 3, 2025
Doi: https://doi.org/10.37634/efp.2025.3.14
Close connections between various states of the world and their residents in the economic and other spheres are directly related and/or lead to the emergence of international currency relations, which actually mediate the implementation of almost all types of international relations. Currency relations, both within the state and abroad, are associated with the participation of key, reserve currencies. As you know, the US dollar has the most specific weight as a key reserve currency. The purpose of the paper is to clarify, based on the research conducted, the specifics of the international legal status and features of the US dollar as a key reserve currency, which is quite widely used by subjects of international monetary relations. Also, after the Second World War, the US dollar occupied a leading place not only in international payments, but also in the official (state) currency reserves of the countries of the world. Therefore, the specifics of the international legal status and features of the US dollar as a key reserve currency are of not only scientific, but also practical interest. The paper examines the approaches of scientists to the concepts: "reserve currency", "key currency", "dominant currency", etc. The specifics of the international legal status and features of the US dollar as a key reserve currency, as well as the Ukrainian legislator's approaches to defining this category of currencies, are analyzed. Summing up, the author notes that the main specific feature of the international legal status of the US dollar is that it simultaneously retains its national legal status and remains the national currency of the United States of America. The most important feature of the US dollar at the current stage is, first of all, the fact that there is a tendency to decrease its role as a key reserve currency, while at the same time maintaining its international legal status and quite significant positions in the world economy. From the author's point of view, the introduction into scientific use of the term "international currency" in the sense of "world money" at the current stage does not correspond to the realities of currency markets and existing currency systems, which are characterized by the presence of not international, but national currencies as objects of monetary legal relations and objects of operations carried out on foreign exchange markets.
Keywords : international legal status; US dollar; key reserve currency; international currency; official currency reserves; sanctions; international legal mechanism
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