Constitutional Process under Ukrainian Central Council (1917–1918)

Abstract

The article analyzes creation of the Constitutional Committee by the Ukrainian Central Council (UCC) and its activities with a view to developing a draft of the Constitution of Ukraine. Formation of the Constitutional Committee of the UCC was guided by political rather than professional criteria. In July 1917, the Committee prepared the first draft of the Constitution of Ukraine – “Charter of the Supreme Administration of Ukraine”. Given the scope and content of the “Charter of the Supreme Administration of Ukraine”, this document should be qualified as a temporary minor Constitution of Ukraine. Adoption of the Third Universal of the UCC on November 7, 1917 began the second stage of the constitutional process in the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR). In December 1917, the Mala Rada (Minor Council) approved the second draft of the Constitution of the UPR. The Fourth Universal, adopted by the UCR on January 22, 1918, marked the beginning of the third stage of the constitutional process which ended with adoption of the “Charter on State System, Rights and Freedoms of the UNR” by the Mala Rada on April 29, 1918. The drafts of the Constitution of Ukraine of 1917–1918 did not come into force, but they imply the high level of development of the national constitutional thinking. The constitutional process in Ukraine under the Ukrainian Central Council was democratic. It relied on the principles of European constitutionalism and own national constitutional experience.