ADOPTION OF BASIC MODELS AND LEGITIMATE MECHANISMS FOR ADOPTING CONSTITUTIONS: WORLD EXPERIENCE FOR UKRAINE

Abstract

The article highlights the main provisions on the theory and practice of approving the main models of constitutions. The conclusion is substantiated that the legal relations connected with the adoption of constitutions are in all cases connected with the realization of the constituent power, which the modern doctrine of constitutionalism distinguishes from the legislative power. However, the Constitution of Ukraine and other countries of the world does not regulate the category of “constituent power”. Its bearers in relation to constitutions can be both directly the people and/or specially formed constituent bodies (constituents, from French «consti-tuante»), and subjects of the constitutional law which carry out constituent function as exclusive (parliaments, heads of the states, etc.), and their status is further regulated by the constitutions adopted by them. The essence and content of the procedures for the adoption of constitutions in Europe and North America in the end. XVIII century – at the beginning XX century on the example of Great Britain, the United States, France, Belgium, Prussia, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, the free city of Danzing, and the UPR. The typology of the main historically formed models of constitution adoption and determination of their influence on the development and adoption of constitutions in Ukraine is carried out. The following historically formed models of adopting legitimate constitutions are singled out: English, American, French, Swiss, Belgian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian models. The latter, in fact, became an incomplete and belated in time repetition of the German model of adoption of constitutional acts by the emperor through their octrusion. Although the Manifesto of April 17, 1905 and the Basic Laws of the Russian Empire in 1906 did not lead to the transformation of Russia into a liberal constitutional monarchy, the very question of building a constitutional state in Russia contributed to the development of political and legal thought and the emergence of the first constitutional drafts in Ukraine. These are, in particular, Sketches of the Constitution of H. Andruzky, the Draft Fundamentals of the Statute of the Ukrainian Society “Free Union” – “Free Union”, the Basic Law “Independent Ukraine” of the Union of the Ukrainian People, the draft constitution of the Ukrainian People’s Republic O. Eichelman and others. The first constitution of independent Ukraine during the national liberation revolution of 1917-1922 was the “Charter of State, Rights and Freedoms of the Ukrainian People’s Republic”, also known as the Constitution of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in 1918. But only in the Constitution of Ukraine, solemnly adopted June 28, 1996. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, on behalf of the Ukrainian People, successfully implemented the democratic procedure for adopting a legitimate constitution. This is evidenced, among other things, by its effectiveness in Ukraine for 25 years.