The Formation and Development of Administrative and Legal Regulation of Children's Sports in Ukraine (19th – Early 21st Century)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21564/2414-990X.173.359160Keywords:
children's sports, administrative and legal regulation, legal personality of the child, sports law, legal status of a child athlete, public management of sportsAbstract
The article provides a comprehensive historical-legal and theoretical-legal analysis of the formation and development of administrative-legal regulation of children's sports. The research aims to identify the patterns in the evolution of the legal status of the child in the sphere of sports legal relations and to determine its contemporary content. It is established that the development of children's sports has been uneven and dependent on transformations in public administration models. Three main historical stages are distinguished. Within the imperial period, the absence of an institutionally established system of children's sports and the non-recognition of the child as a subject of sports legal relations are recorded. The Soviet period is characterized by the formation of a centralized administrative-command model, within which children's sports acquired institutional form; however, the child was viewed as an object of state policy and an element of the sports reserve training system. At the current stage, a transformation of this model is taking place, accompanied by the formal recognition of the child as a participant in sports legal relations, yet without proper specification of their administrative-legal status. It is argued that the current state of legal regulation of children's sports has a transitional nature and combines elements of different historical models. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the formation of a holistic model of the evolution of the legal personality of the child in the field of sports, which reflects the transition from its absence to declarative recognition and requires further normative development.
References
State Statistics Service of Ukraine. (2017). Consolidated report on extracurricular educational institutions as of January 1, 2017 (excluding DIuSSh). Retrieved from https://iea.gov.ua/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/1-pz-zvedena-16-17.pdf.
State Statistics Service of Ukraine. (2020). Consolidated report on extracurricular educational institutions as of January 1, 2020 (excluding DIuSSh). Retrieved from https://iea.gov.ua/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1-pz-zvedena-19-20.pdf.
State Statistics Service of Ukraine. (2025). Consolidated report on extracurricular educational institutions as of January 1, 2025 (excluding DIuSSh). Retrieved from https://iea.gov.ua/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/1-pz-derj-kom-priv-2025.pdf.
Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. Consolidated reports on the activities of children's and youth sports schools (specialized children's and youth sports schools of the Olympic reserve). Retrieved from https://mms.gov.ua/sport/dityacho-yunackij-ta-rezervnij-sport/dityacho-yunacki-sportivni-shkoli/zviti-po-dyussh.
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Youth and Sports. Functioning of children's and youth sports schools, including those subordinate to physical culture and sports societies in the context of decentralization of power. (February 22, 2017). Retrieved from https://www.rada.gov.ua/news/Novyny/141000.html.
Verbytskyi, V.A., & Bondarenko, I.H. (2014). History of physical culture and sports in Ukraine. Mykolaiv: Petra Mohyly ChDU.
The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire. (1830). The First Collected: from 1649 to 12 December 1825. Vol. ХХІ. Sankt-Peterburg.
Elistratov, A.I. (1914). The basic principles of administrative law. Moscow: G.A. Lemana.
Dotsenko, V.O., & Loshchykhin, O.M. (2015). Legal regulation of the activities of public associations in the Russian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Scientific and Practical Journal. Pravo.ua, 4, 5-10.
Mahas-Demydas, Yu.I., & Mahas, V.O. (2023). Legal regulation of public associations activities in the russian empire in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Scientific innovations and advanced technologies (Series "Management and Administration", Series "Law", Series "Economics", Series "Psychology", Series "Pedagogy"), 6(20), 275-283. https://doi.org/10.52058/2786-5274-2023-6(20)-275-283.
The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire. (1873). The Second Collected. Vol. XLIV. Assembly One. Sankt-Peterburg.
The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire. (1908). The Еhird Collected. Vol. ХХ. Assembly One. Sankt-Peterburg.
The Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire. (1909). The Еhird Collected. Vol. ХХVІ. Assembly One. Sankt-Peterburg.
Nahirniak, A.Ya. (2008). To the history of the creation and activities of the sports society "Sokil" in Lviv (late 19th - early 20th centuries). Bulletin of the National University "Lviv Polytechnic", 634, 26-31.
Vatseba, O. (2009). Kultura fiziczna ludnosci ukrainskiej (1868-1939) – as a reflection of the uniqueness of the sports and gymnastics movement in Galicia at the beginning of the 20th century. Bulletin of the Precarpathian University "Physical Culture", 10, 118-121.
Law of Nationals in the Kingdoms and Länder represented in the Council of the Realm "Basic Law on the General Rights". (December 21, 1867). Retrieved from https://policehumanrightsresources.org/content/uploads/2016/08/Basic-Law-on-the-General-Rights-of-Nationals-Austria-1867.pdf?x18231#:~:text=Art.-,12.,%2C%20print%2C%20or%20pictorial%20representation.
Agergaard, S., Redelius, K., & Strandbu, A. (2024). Childrenʼs Rights to and in Sport: A Comparative Analysis of Organizational Policies in the Scandinavian Countries. Social Sciences, 13(4), 216. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13040216.
Ponomarov, A. A. (2025). Legal Regulation of Children’s Sports: The Experience of Ukraine, Norway, Japan, Estonia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Problems of Legality, 169, 124-145. https://doi.org/10.21564/2414-990X.169.327081.
Kostenko, L.D. (2021). Оut-of-school education of Ukraine in the first half of the XX century. Pedagogy of the formation of a creative personality in higher and general education schools, 74(1), 23-27. https://doi.org/10.32840/1992-5786.2021.74-1.4.
Administration of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. (1942). Collection of laws and orders of the workers' and peasants' government for 1917-1918. Moscow.
Luzan, P.H., & Vasiuk, O.V. (2010). History of pedagogy and education. (2nd ed.). Kyiv: DAKKKiM.
Movchan, O.M. (2009). Ukraine: Chronicle of the 20th Century. Years 1923-1924. Kyiv.
Collection of materials, notes, and programs. State Center for Physical Culture. Part 1. (1931). Moscow: Physical Culture and Tourism.
Collection of laws and orders of the Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine. 1930.(1930). Kharkiv: V. Blakytnoho Newspaper Factory.
Kukushkin, G.I. (Ed.). (1961). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Physical Education and Sports. (Vols. 1-3). Vol. 3: Absolute Record – Clinch. Moscow: Physical Education and Sport.
Ten years of the USSR Pioneer Organization. (1932). Moscow-Samara.
Kulinko, I.F. (1982). History and organization of physical education. Moscow: Prosveshchenie.
Collection of laws and orders of the Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine. 1936. No. 1-36. (1936). Kyiv: Printing house of the publishing house "Proletarska Pravda".
Hasiuk, I.L. (2009). Evolution of organizational and legal foundations of state management of physical culture and sports in Ukrainian lands at the end of the 19th century and in the Soviet period. University Scientific Notes, 4(32), 261-272.
Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 2140 "On streamlining the network and approving standard staffing levels and salaries of employees of extracurricular institutions of the ministries of education of the union republics". (April 30, 1952). Retrieved from https://economics.kiev.ua/download/ZakonySSSR/data04/tex16264.htm.
Resolution of the Secretariat of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions No. 269 On approval of the "Regulations on the children’s sports school of voluntary sports societies of trade unions". (June 11, 1953). Retrieved from https://economics.kiev.ua/download/ZakonySSSR/data04/tex16264.htm.
Resolution of the Secretariat of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Protocol No. 21 clause 1 On approval of the "Regulations on the children’s sports school of voluntary sports societies of trade unions". (December 4, 1959). Retrieved from https://economics.kiev.ua/download/ZakonySSSR/data04/tex16264.htm.
Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR "On improving the management of physical culture and sports in the Ukrainian SSR". (1968). Collection of Resolutions of the Ukrainian SSR, 11, Art. 3-5.
Resolution of the Committee on Physical Culture and Sports under the Council of Ministers of the USSR Protocol No. 10 On approval of the "Regulations on the Children's and Youth Sports School" and "Regulations on specialized classes in sports with an extended day of study and in-depth educational and training process outside of school hours". (October 3, 1977). Retrieved from https://e-ecolog.ru/docs/nNG_r99wwQs5Z6f5tK3OY?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fe-ecolog.ru%2Fdocs%2FnNG_r99wwQs5Z6f5tK3OY%3Futm_referrer%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252F.
Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR "On the further increase in the mass participation of physical culture and sports in the Ukrainian SSR". (October 16, 1981). Collection of Resolutions of the Ukrainian SSR, 11, Art. 3-11.
Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR "On the transformation of the Committee on Physical Culture and Sports under the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR into the State Committee of the Ukrainian SSR for Physical Culture and Sports". (April 22, 1986). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=148-86-%EF#Text.
Order of the USSR State Committee for Physical Culture and Sports No. 228 "On the introduction of the regulations on the children's and youth sports school, the specialized children's and youth school of the Olympic reserve, and specialized classes in sports". (April 9, 1987). Retrieved from https://rulaws.ru/acts/Prikaz-Goskomsporta-SSSR-ot-09.04.1987-N-228/.
Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR No. 251 "Questions of the State Committee of the Ukrainian SSR for Youth, Physical Culture and Sports". (September 13, 1990). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=251-90-%EF#Text.
Law of Ukraine No. 3808-ХІІ "On Physical Culture and Sport" (December 24, 1993). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=251-90-%EF#Text.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 334/94 "On state support for the development of physical culture and sports in Ukraine". (June 22, 1994). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/334/94#Text.
Convention on the Rights of the Child. (November 20, 1989). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_021#Text.
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. (November 4, 1950). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_004#Text.
International Charter for Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport. (November 21, 1978). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_350#Text.
Revised European Sports Charter. (October 13, 2022). Retrieved from https://mms.gov.ua/storage/app/sites/16/Mizhnarodna_dijalnist/Spivrobitnuctvo%20z%20radoy%20EU/PREMS%20039224%20UKR%202584%20Revised%20European%20Sports%20Charter.pdf.
International Convention against Doping in Sport. (November 18, 2005). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/952_007#Text.
Law of Ukraine No. 2145-VIII "On Education". (September 5, 2017). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2145-19#Text.
Law of Ukraine No. 1841-III "On Extracurricular Education". (June 22, 2000). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1841-14#Text.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 390/2013 "On the Regulations on the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine". (July 24, 2013). Retrieved from https://www.president.gov.ua/documents/3902013-15493.
Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 220 "On approval of the Regulations on the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine". (July 2, 2014). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/220-2014-%D0%BF#Text.
Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 242 "Questions from the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine". (October 3, 1991). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/242-91-%D0%BF#Text.
Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 312 "Questions from the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine". (June 8, 1992). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/312-92-%D0%BF.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 1078/96 "On the Regulations on the State Committee of Ukraine for Physical Culture and Sports". (November 14, 1996). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1078/96#Text.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 740/2000 "About the State Committee for Youth Policy, Sports and Tourism of Ukraine". (May 31, 2000). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/740/2000#Text.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 1132/2001 "On the reorganization of the State Committee for Youth Policy, Sports and Tourism of Ukraine". (November 22, 2001). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1132/2001#Text.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 381/2005 "On the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine". (February 26, 2005). Retrieved from https://www.president.gov.ua/documents/3812005-2287.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 1176/2005 "On the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports of Ukraine". (August 18, 2005). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1176/2005/ed20050818#Text.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 1085/2010 "On the optimization of the system of central executive authorities". (December 09, 2010). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1085/2010#Text.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 410/2011 "On approval of the Regulations on the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine". (April 08, 2011). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/410/2011#Text.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 636/2011 "On the Regulations on the State Service for Youth and Sports of Ukraine". (May 31, 2011). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/636/2011#Text.
Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 333-р "On the approval of the Concept of reforming local self-government and territorial organization of power in Ukraine". (April 1, 2014). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/333-2014-%D1%80#Text.
Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 993 "On approval of the Regulations on the Children's and Youth Sports School". (November 5, 2008). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/993-2008-%D0%BF#n222.
Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 433 "On approval of the list of types of extracurricular educational institutions and the Regulation on extracurricular educational institutions". (May 6, 2001). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/433-2001-%D0%BF#Text.
Order of Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine No. 67 "On the organization of educational and training work of children's and youth sports schools". (January 17, 2015). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0119-15#n107.
Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine "Training programs for physical education and sports institutions in sports". Retrieved from https://mms.gov.ua/sport/dityacho-yunackij-ta-rezervnij-sport/navchalni-programi-dlya-zakladiv-fizichnoyi-kulturi-i-sportu-z-vidiv-sportu.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 1148/2004 "About the National Doctrine for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports". (September 28, 2004). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1148/2004#Text.
Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No. 372-V "On information from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine regarding the activities of state authorities and local self-government bodies in the development of physical culture and sports". (November 17, 2006). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/372-16#Text.
Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 42/2016 "About the National Strategy for Health-Promoting Physical Activity in Ukraine for the Period Until 2025 "Physical Activity - Healthy Lifestyle - Healthy Nation"". (February 9, 2016). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/42/2016#Text.
Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1089 "On approval of the Strategy for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports for the period until 2028". (November 4, 2020). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1089-2020-%D0%BF#Text.
Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1493-р "On approval of the State Targeted Social Program for the Development of Physical Culture and Sports for the Period Until 2030". (December 24, 2025). Retrieved from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1493-2025-%D1%80#Text.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Андрій Пономарьов

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.









