Most of today’s Ukrainian laws came to us from the Soviet time. Twenty-five years have passed, but we still can’t get rid of this “heritage”.
The Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) experts together with a group of authors – people’s deputies of Ukraine prepared a draft law on amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Legal Succession of Ukraine” regarding the abolition of the USSR acts on the territory of Ukraine. This draft law was registered under #4650 and dated 5/11/2016 in the Verkhovna Rada.
The draft law provides for amendments to paragraph 3 of the current Law “On Legal Succession of Ukraine”, according to which “Laws and other acts of the USSR and Ukrainian SSR authorities are not valid for the territory of Ukraine”, and determines a transition period of six months from the adoption of the new law.
13 base Codes and Laws of Ukraine as well as subordinate regulations adopted for their implementation are operated during this period (a full list can be found here).
If the draft law is adopted, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine will be obliged within six months:
to bring its regulations in line with this Law;
to ensure revising and bringing the regulations of ministries and other central executive bodies in line with this Law;
to ensure the development and approval of regulatory acts regulating relations, which are regulated by the USSR and Ukrainian SSR subordinate laws and regulations at the time the law comes into effect, by ministries and other central executive bodies.
In such a way, this draft law not only determines the problem area of the “Soviet legal heritage”, but also instructs all central authorities to make an inventory of their regulatory environment and ensure the development of regulations that meet modern Ukrainian rule-making principles being based on a democratic approach to regulation and administration rather than on a totalitarian one.
The Better Regulation Delivery Office hopes that the proposed draft law will be promoted and Ukraine will receive the document providing the constitutional right of everyone to know their rights and responsibilities, and initiating real decommunization processes and changes in minds of citizens accordingly in the near future.