Scientific approach to issue of history of origin of national constitutionalism

Abstract

Problem Setting. The article analyzes the views of Ukrainian scientists on the issue of origin of the national constitutionalism. Research of the history of origin, formation and development of the national constitutionalism is a new area of the historical and legal science, which was launched in the post-Soviet period. Given the complexity of the subject of the research and relatively short time of its study, the national historical-legal science and the science of constitutional law have not formed a unified approach to the time of origin of the Ukrainian constitutionalism in general and the modern national constitutionalism in particular yet.

The actuality of the topic. AfterUkraine was proclaimed independent in 1991, the issue of the history of origin of the national constitutionalism has been referred by specialists in the history of state and law and constitutional law Yu. H. Barabash, S. P. Holovatyi, V. D. Honcharenko, V. S. Zhuravskyi, V. M. Yermolaiev, V. P. Kolisnyk, V. V. Kravchenko, A. P. Krysian, O. M. Myronenko, A. Y. Rogozhin, I. Ye. Slovska, V. Ya. Tatsiy, Yu. M. Todyka, S. V. Shevchuk, M. V. Tsvik and others. The researchers follow two basic views on the timing and events that led to the origin of the national constitutionalism as a political and legal phenomena: 1) formation of the Ukrainian state as a result of the national liberation war led by Bohdan Khmelnytskyi in the middle of the XVII century; 2) development and adoption of the Constitution of P. Orlyk of 1710.

The purpose of the article. The researchers mostly associate the events that led to origin of the modern national constitutionalism, as a legal and actual phenomena, with adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine in 1990, Declaration of Independence of Ukraine in 1991 and adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in 1996. But the vast majority of experts in constitutional law ofUkraine insist on the fact that adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in 1996 only marked the beginning of the process of formation of the modern national constitutionalism. It is necessary to consider the revolutionary events of late 2013 – early 2014, which showed the need for a constitutional reform to introduce European standards of human rights protection and decentralization of power, to be an important argument in favour of the fact that formation of the modern national constitutionalism began with the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in 1996 and continues to this day.