The objective of building a democratic rule-of-law state and establishing a civil society in Ukraine calls for a high level of constitutional and legal regulation of the most important social relations. As emphasized in the current Constitution of Ukraine, this process draws upon the “centuries-old history of Ukrainian state-building” . During the events of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917–1921 witnessing real statebuilding processes, the idea of restoration of national statehood started to acquire its material forms and the conditions for implementation of constitutional and legal fundamental principles were created. In this context, of major importance is the constitution-building process in the Ukrainian People’s Republic (hereinafter – UPR) of the Directorate period (November 1918 – early 1921). The constitution-building accomplishments of those times, in particular the draft UPR Constitution by O. Eichelman, were based on democratic principles consistent with the world achievements of constitutional law and had an impact on further development of constitutional law in independent Ukraine. The purpose of this article is to investigate into the general and specific features and regularities of the constitution-building process in the UPR of the Directorate period and its relation to the factors of socio-political development; to analyze the challenging issues of organization of power under the draft UPR Constitution by O. Eichelman; to study the origins and nature of organization of the state, the structure of the state mechanism, its set-up principles and separation of power. The article establishes that the state structure form was underlain by democratic principles combining centralization and broad local self-government. This was the basis for building the system of power organization in the center and in the regions and for the procedure of setting up relevant bodies and delineating the competence between central and local government and administration bodies. The author also explains the bases of separation of power into legislative, executive, judicial and financial as a guarantee for well-coordinated operation of the state mechanism. The author arrives at the conclusion that the main provisions incorporated in the draft UPR Constitution by O. Eichelman with regard to organization of power were consistent with the best international standards of those times, and this clearly indicates that the purpose of the constitutional project was to form the constitutional and legal bases upon which a democratic, rule-of-law and social welfare state could be established under the model that could exist in the historical contest of the twenties of the XX century.

Bibliography 
 

Authored books 
1. Konstytutsiia Ukrainy: ofitsiine vydannia [Constitution of Ukraine: Official edition] (Pravo 1996) (in Ukrainian). 
2. Pryliuk Yurii ta Yanevskyi Danylo, Konstytutsiini akty Ukrainy, 1917–1920: nevidomi konstytutsii Ukrainy [Constitutional acts of Ukraine, 1917–1920: unknown constitution of Ukraine] (Filosofska i sotsiolohichna dumka1992) (in Ukrainian). 

Archival documents 
3. Proekt Konstytutsii Dyrektorii ta zauvazhen do noho [Draft Constitution of the Directory and comments on it] (Tsentralnyi Derzhavnyi arkhiv vyshchykh orhaniv vlady i upravlinnia Ukrainy, f 1065 op 2 spr 293) (in Ukrainian).