The article provides a comprehensive analysis of constituent power as a fundamental factor in the formation and development of statehood in post-Soviet countries, with particular emphasis on the constitutional and legal development of Ukraine. The article demonstrates that the dialectical method can be effectively used to analyse state-building processes, democratic theory, and constitutionalism, and points out that this approach is still rarely used in domestic academic studies. A comparative legal analysis of the declarations of state sovereignty adopted by the former Soviet republics allows the conclusion that these acts were not of a purely political nature, but also functioned as constituent acts of a quasi-constitutional character. The article further examines the concept of popular sovereignty, reveals the specific features of civic and national sovereignty, and demonstrates how these features became preconditions for contradictions in the development of certain post-Soviet states. Particular attention is devoted to the 1990 Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine as an act of exercising the constituent power of the people. The article maintains that the people of Ukraine should be recognised as the sole source not only of state power but of all public power, including economic authority over land and natural resources. Based on an analysis of the evolution of institutions of state power and local self-government in the context of popular sovereignty, it is concluded that the development of the Ukrainian state has been characterised by an increasing gap between the factual model of implementation of legal provisions in state functioning and the declared principles of a “civic” model of popular sovereignty. The article states that numerous constitutional provisions have been violated by the highest bodies of state governance. Moreover, it critically assesses the constitutional reforms carried out in Ukraine and the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine which, among other things, have created legal conditions that complicate or limit the people’s ability to exercise their right under Article 5 of the Constitution of Ukraine, to determine and change the constitutional order in Ukraine. Taking into consideration stated above, the article presents conclusions regarding the necessity of starting a constitutional process aimed at adopting a new Constitution of Ukraine and strengthening the participation of the people, as the sovereign, in the exercise of constituent power in national statebuilding. In this regard, a key role should be played by future Ukrainian Constituent Assemblies.

Authored books

1. Sirenko V, Pro lehalnist ta legitymnist derzhavnoyi vlady (Oriiany 2006) (in Ukrainian).

2. Yushchyk O, Dialektyka prava: kn.1: Obscheye ucheniye o prave (kriticheskiy analiz obshepravovych ponyatiy) (red zhurnala Pravo Ukrainy, In Yure 2013) (in Russian).

Edited books

3. Formula demokratii: narod – Konstitutsiya – vlada. 20-richchu Konstitutsiyi Ukrainy prysvyachuyetsya (O Moroz, O Yushchyk (red), Parlamentske vydavnytstvo 2016) (in Ukrainian).

Theses

4. Kuian I, ‘Problemy sutnosti I spivvidnoshennia derzhavnoho, narodnoho i natsionalnoho suverenitetu (konstytutsiyno-pravovyi aspekt)’ (dys doktora yuryd nauk, 2014) (in Ukrainian).

5. Maksakova R, ‘Konstitutsiino-pravovi problemy ustanovchoyi vlady v Ukraini’ (dys doktora yuryd nauk, 2013) (in Ukrainian).

6. Tepliuk M, ‘Konstitutsiino-pravovi problemy orhanizatsii publichnoi vlady v Ukraini’ (avtoref dys kand yuryd nauk, 2008) (in Ukrainian).