The article is devoted to the theoretical and legal analysis of the concepts of “people”, “nation” and “state” in the context of the formation of Ukrainian statehood and national statehood. The relevance is determined by the lack of established criteria for the delimitation of these concepts, the variability of their historical and legal content, as well as the ambiguity of determining the time of the emergence of the Ukrainian nation and views on the continuity of state-forming processes. The purpose of the article, which is methodologically based on historical and legal, systemic and structural and formal and logical approaches, is to attempt to clarify the theoretical and legal content of the above concepts and their historical and legal delimitation. It is shown that the people represent the primary form of collective identity, based on ethno-cultural community, legal customs and territorial continuity, while the nation reflects the transition to a political and legal subject capable of realizing itself as a bearer of sovereignty. It is motivated that the state appears as an institutional form of exercising public power, which, however, in early and medieval formations, in particular in Ukrainian lands, had a personified and dynastic-estate nature and was not based on popular sovereignty. It is established that statehood encompasses a broader historical and legal process of formation, reproduction and continuity of forms of public power, legal culture and traditions of self-government. It is believed that the early modern Cossack state, in particular the Hetmanate, combined the historical continuity of the Ukrainian state and legal tradition with the formation of national political subjectivity, laying the legal and ideological foundations of Ukrainian national statehood. And Cossack freedoms and the idea of freedom became a stable value-normative reference point of the national state tradition.

Authored books

1. Hrushevskyi M, Istoriia Ukrainy-Rusy: V 11 t., 12 kn. T. 1 (3-ie vyd., dop., Naukova dumka 1994) (in Ukrainian).

2. Makarchuk V, Istoriia derzhavy i prava zarubizhnykh krain: navch. posib.: Kurs lektsii (Atika 2000) (in Ukrainian).

3. Miroshnychenko M, Henezys natsionalnykh pravovykh system: teoretyko-metodolohichnyi aspekt (Vidkrytyi mizhnarodnyi un-t rozvytku liudyny “Ukraina” 2007) (in Ukrainian).

4. Motsia O, Ukraintsi: narod i yoho zemlia (etapy stanovlennia) (Starodavnii Svit 2011) (in Ukrainian).

5. Sas P, Politychna kultura ukrainskoho suspilstva (kinets XVI – persha polovyna XVII st.): Navch. posib. (Lybid 1998) (in Ukrainian).

6. Sas P, Vytoky ukrainskoho natsiotvorennia (In-t istorii Ukrainy NAN Ukrainy 2010) (in Ukrainian).

7. Shcherbak V, Derzhavna ideia v rannomodernii Ukraini (Tvory 2019) (in Ukrainian).

8. Terliuk I, Ukrainska derzhavnist: formuvannia natsionalnoi derzhavno-pravovoi tradytsii. Druha polovyna XVI – pochatok XX st. (Halytska vydavnycha spilka 2022) (in Ukrainian).

9. Zemskyi Yu, Polska, rosiiska ta ukrainska elity v zmahanniakh za Pravoberezhnu Ukrainu seredyny XIX st. (Khmelnytskyi 2011) (in Ukrainian).

Edited and translated books

10. Fuko M, Arkheolohiia znannia (per. z fr. V Shovkun, Vyd-vo Solomii Pavlychko “Osnovy” 2003) (in Ukrainian).

11. Khalebskyi P, Ukraina – zemlia kozakiv. Podorozhnii shchodennyk (M Riabyi (uporiad), Yaroslaviv Val 2009) (in Ukrainian).

12. Litvin H, Z narodu Ruskoho. Shliakhta Kyivshchyny, Volyni ta Bratslavshchyny (1569–1648) (per. z polsk. L Lysenko, Dukh i litera 2016) (in Ukrainian).

13. Plokhii S, Pokhodzhennia slovianskykh natsii. Domoderni identychnosti v Ukraini, Rosii ta Bilorusi (per. z anhl. S Plokhii, Krytyka 2015) (in Ukrainian).

Journal articles

14. Mytsyk Yu, ‘Sas P. M. Politychna kultura ukrainskoho suspilstva (kinets XVI – persha pol. XVII st.) K., 1998. 295 s.’ [1998] 5 Ukrainskyi istorychnyi zhurnal 126 (in Ukrainian).

15. Terliuk I, ‘“Derzhava” i “derzhavnist”: do problemy teoretyko-pravovoho ta istoryko- pravovoho zmistu poniat v konteksti ukrainskoho (natsionalnoho) derzhavotvorennia’ [2021] 1(29)8 Visnyk Natsionalnoho universytetu “Lvivska politekhnika”. Seriia: “Iurydychni nauky” 17–28 http://doi.org/10.23939/law2021.29.017 (in Ukrainian).

16. Terliuk I, ‘Fenomen natsii i natsiogenezu v konteksti (natsionalnoho) derzhavotvorennia’ [2022] 2(34)9 Visnyk Natsionalnoho universytetu “Lvivska politekhnika”. Seriia: “Iurydychni nauky” 13–22 https://doi.org/10.23939/law2022.34.013 (in Ukrainian).

17. Terliuk I, ‘Fenomen natsii u naukovomu dyskursi: do metodolohii problemy istorychnoi spadkoiemnosti natsii ta derzhavy’ [2018] 902 Visnyk Natsionalnoho universytetu “Lvivska politekhnika”. Seriia: Yurydychni nauky 19–25 (in Ukrainian).

Conference papers

18. Pazynich Yu, ‘Istoryko-politychni aspekty ukrainskoho derzhavotvorennia v druhii polovyni XVII–XVIII st.’, 300 rokiv Konstytutsii hetmana Ukrainy Pylypa Orlyka: problemy stanovlennia i rozvytku ukrainskoho derzhavotvorennia: materialy Mizhnarodnoi naukovo-teoretychnoi konferentsii (LvDUVS 2010) 121 (in Ukrainian).