The article focuses on the study of the history and development of the constitutional process underway in Ukraine upon the establishment of the Ukrainian Central Rada (hereinafter – UCR) and especially upon the proclamation of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (hereinafter – UPR), which resulted in the adoption of the UPR Constitution. The article analyzes the most significant types of sources of constitutional law, traces the continuity in the UCR state- and law-making, the development of the Charter on the state form of government, and UPR rights and liberties. The author focuses on the main sense and milestones of the constitutional process implemented by the UCR, analyzes the Central Rada’s Universals which laid the state and legal foundations of the UPR and its legal system, and the step-by-step process of constitutional law-making. The purpose of the article is to analyze the process by which the UCR initiated the constitutional law-making, the incorporation therein of the constitutional and legal principles of grass-roots democracy and state sovereignty, and the development of the legal constitution. It is established that since Universal I which briefly outlined the intention of the Ukrainian people, the Central Rada by its legislative efforts sought to provide for constitutional and legal regulation of challenging socio-economic and political relations in Ukraine ensuing from national liberation and the proclamation of the People’s Republic. The “interim Parliament”, as the UCR declared itself, and the legislative process are studied in terms of their specific features; as well as the main stages of development of the draft fundamental law of the UPR initiated by the “Charter of Autonomous Ukraine”. Besides, attention is paid to the provisions of “the Draft Constitution of the Ukrainian People’s Republic” dated December 10, 1917 and their entrenchment in the “Charter on the State Form of Government, Rights and Liberties of the UPR”. The undisputed achievement of the UCR’s legislative activity was the development and adoption of the law on the national and personal autonomy acknowledged by its developers as a “small Constitution” for national minorities, “the Declaration of the Rights of Nations”. In general, the UPR laws reflected and, in a certain way, entrenched the variety of the matured constitutional relations and the diversity of their objects, and became the source of the UPR Fundamental Law. The adopted UPR Constitution legally formalized the revival of Ukrainian statehood.

Bibliography 
 

Authored books 
1. Doroshenko D, Moi spomyny pro nedavnie-mynule (1914–1920): Halytska Ruina. Doba Tsentralnoi Rady. Doba Hetmanshchyny. Doba Dyrektorii [My Memories of the Recentpast (1914–1920): Destruction of Halychyna. Era of the Central Council. Era of the Hetmanate. Era of the Directory] (2-e vyd, Ukrainske vydavnytstvo 1969) (in Ukrainian). 
2. Mazepa I, Ukraina v ohni i buri revoliutsii. 1917–1921, I. Tsentralna rada – Hetmanat – Dyrektoriia. II. Kamianetska doba [Ukraine on Fire and in the Storm of the Revolution. 1917–1921, I. Central Council – Hetmanate – Directorate. II Kamenetz Era] (Sich 2001) (in Ukrainian). 
3. Myronenko O, Vytoky ukrainskoho revoliutsiinoho konstytutsionalizmu 1917–1920 rr. Teoretyko-metodolohichnyi aspekt: monografia [The Origins of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Constitutionalism of 1917–1920. The Theoretical and Methodological Aspect: Monograph] (In-t derzhavy i prava im V M Koretskoho NAN Ukrainy 2002) (in Ukrainian). 
4. Soldatenko V, Ukrainskyi vybir: politychni systemy XX stolittia i poshuk vlasnoi modeli suspilnoho rozvytku [The Ukrainian Choice: Political Systems of the XX Century and a Search for Own Model of Social Development] (Parlamentske vydavnytstvo 2007) (in Ukrainian). 

Edited books

5. Hrushevskyi M, Tvory [Works], t 4, kn 1 (Sokhan P ta Dashkevych Ya ta Hyrych I ta in redkol, Svit 2007) (in Ukrainian).

6. Hunchak T ta Solchanyk R (uklad), Ukrainska suspilno-politychna dumka u 20-mu stolitti. Dokumenty i materialy [Ukrainian Social and Political Thought in the 20th Century. Documents and Materials], t 1 (Suchasnist 1983) (in Ukrainian).

7. Khrystiuk P, Zamitky i materialy do istorii Ukrainskoi revoliutsii 1917–1921 rr. [Notes and materials to the history of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921], t 1–3 (1921) (in Ukrainian). 8. Verstiuk V ta inshi (uporiadn), Smolii V ta inshi (red), Ukrainska Tsentralna Rada: dokumenty i materialy [The Ukrainian Central Rada: Documents and Materials], t 1: 4 bereznia – 9 hrudnia 1917 r. [March 4 – December 9, 1917] (Naukova dumka 1996) (in Ukrainian).

9. – –, Ukrainska Tsentralna Rada: dokumenty i materialy [The Ukrainian Central Rada: Documents and materials], t 2: 10 hrudnia 1917 r. – 29 kvitnia 1918 r. [December 10, 1917 – April 29, 1918] (Naukova dumka 1996) (in Ukrainian).

10. Vynnychenko V, Vidrodzhennia natsii [Revival of the Nation], ch I (repryntne vidtvorennia vydannia 1920 r, Politvydav Ukrainy 1990) (in Ukrainian).

11. – –, Vidrodzhennia natsii [Revival of the Nation], ch II (repryntne vidtvorennia vydannia 1920 r, Politvydav Ukrainy 1990) (in Ukrainian).

Journal articles

12. Honcharenko V, ‘Utvorennia Ukrainskoi Narodnoi Respubliky yak vazhlyvyi etap na shliakhu do nezalezhnosti Ukrainy’ [‘Establishment of the Ukrainian People’s Republic as an Important Stage on the Way to Independence of Ukraine’] (2017) 11 Pravo Ukrainy 36 (in Ukrainian).

13. Rumiantsev V, ‘Konstytutsiia UNR 1918 r. – vazhlyvyi krok v rozvytku konstytutsiinoho zakonodavstva Ukrainy’ [‘The Constitution of the Ukrainian People’s Republic of 1918 is an Important Step in the Development of the Constitutional Legislation of Ukraine’] (2006) 11 Derzhane budivnytstvo ta mistseve samovriaduvannia (in Ukrainian).

14. Visty z UNR [News from the UPR] (1917) 20/21 (in Ukrainian).

Archival documents

15. Tsentralnyi Derzhavnyi arkhiv vyshchykh orhaniv vlady i upravlinnia Ukrainy [Central State Archive of the Supreme Power and Administration Bodies of Ukraine] f. 1115, op. 1, od. zb. 6, ark. 149 (in Ukrainian).