ДЖЕРЕЛА ТА ХАРАКТЕРНІ РИСИ ПРАВА В УКРАЇНСЬКІЙ ДЕРЖАВІ «ГЕТЬМАНАТ» ЗА П. СКОРОПАДСЬКОГО
Authors: Boyko Ihor 
Published: July 2024

The article analyzes the sources and characteristic features of law in the Ukrainian «Hetmanate» State under P. Skoropadskyi. The prerequisites for the formation of the Ukrainian State under P. Skoropadskyi are revealed. It is noted that in matters of ensuring the legal basis of the activity of the Ukrainian State, the Hetman's government followed the path of restoring the effect of those normative acts of the tsarist government and partly of the Central Rada, which did not contradict the socio-economic and political interests of Hetman's Ukraine. It is assessed as positive that the Hetman power established clear principles of the law-making process from the very beginning of its existence. It is emphasized that in the «Laws on the Provisional State System of Ukraine» it was stated that the law adopted, that is, signed by the Hetman, enters into force «from the time specified for that purpose in the law itself», and the law could only be canceled by another law. Considerable attention is focused on the analysis of features of civil, criminal and procedural law in the Ukrainian State. It is established that several laws were issued in the field of civil law that regulated the issues of ownership and possession. They generally strictly defended the inviolability of private property and legal ownership. The Law of April 29, 1918, signed by Hetman P. Skoropadskyi, contained several norms related to civil relations. It is argued that criminal law in the Ukrainian State under the Hetmanate had an open punitive orientation. This, in particular, confirms the increased attention of legislators to the classification of crimes into the following types: against the state and the protection of public order and public peace (these included illegal actions aimed at violently changing or overthrowing the constitutional order or seizing state power; encroachment on the life of a statesman; banditry; smuggling and others); against property (theft, robbery, fraud, intentional destruction or damage to property and other economic crimes). As for the latter, the fight against speculation in various types of goods was mainly waged. Attention is also drawn to the legislative regulation of the fight against other types of crimes, in particular crimes against the person, the defense capability of the state, bribery, the procedure for conducting certain criminal cases, etc. Criminal punishments for crimes and other offenses were quite severe: death penalty, imprisonment, confiscation of property, fines, exile from the state, etc. Special attention in the Ukrainian State is paid to procedural law. Since the existence of the Hetmanate, a mixed judicial system has operated in Ukraine, that is, courts created by the Provisional Government, courts established by the Central Council, as well as judicial institutions from the time of the Russian Empire, revived by the government of the Ukrainian State. One of the primary tasks of the Hetman's administration was to establish the effective functioning of the judiciary. The normalization of the situation in Ukraine largely depended on this. On May 3, 1918, P. Skoropadskyi appointed M. Chubynskyi as Minister of Judicial Affairs by his order, who was given a rather responsible task: to restore the activities of judicial bodies. As a result of the work carried out, on July 8, 1918, the Council of Ministers adopted the law «On the formation of the State Senate», which repealed the law of the Central Rada of December 2, 1917, on the introduction of the General Court and established the State Senate in Kyiv as the highest instance of judicial and administrative affairs. Keywords: sources of law, legislation, state, legal regulation, Ukraine.