The ideal law is justice codified, while a Constitution is the key element of the genetic code of social life. On the one hand, as in other countries with difficult heredity, in Ukraine the fundamental law has not yet become a factor governing mass behavior and lifestyle. On the other hand, little by little the decisions of the Constitutional court have become as essential an algorithm of social and political life as Stalin’s well-known “there is an opinion.” And when Ukraine takes the next step from political interpretations of the Constitution to its being translated into life by the written laws and not according to “justice” and bureaucratic arbitrariness, then the constitutional ideal will become a closer reality. As to the specific political and legal character of this Ukrainian standard, that is a different matter. The most important is for the standard to exist, for what can be worse than a life without standards?
Myroslav POPOVYCH, philosopher:
“Most of our compatriots do not attach any clearly defined ideology to Constitution Day. For instance, November 7 is a definitely red holiday, Independence Days a clearly yellow and blue one, but the Day of the Constitution for most people remains just one more holiday, the celebration of which does not necessarily signify any urgent need of the democracy. However, we happen to have certain historic traditions for celebrating Constitution Day. For a long time we celebrated December 5, the Day of the Stalin Constitution, followed by the celebrations of other days of the adoption of constitutions.
“After the proclamation of Ukrainian independence the old Constitution remained in effect and we lived our quiet lives. And no major changes took place in the people’s lives when the old hypocritical Brezhnev constitution was supplanted by something new. It seems to me that here the case is our people’s inadequate sense of democracy and the need for freedom. This feeling has been suppressed by the economic crisis and now it is not clear what the people value more, the economic welfare or the feeling of freedom. Priorities differ within various social strata. This should account for the not very festive mood. I think it reflects our citizens’ insufficient trust and appreciation of democracy.
In reality, the adoption of the Constitution was a milestone for our country. Of course, the Constitution has its strong as well as weak sides, however, with time some things can be changed and amended. It is indeed a big holiday, for it is the day when real democracy received legal status in Ukraine.
“But for the great majority of people this holiday, unfortunately, is a mere day off. And this will continue until the democracy can feed the population. But it will take years for this to happen. Although such things are not closely linked, very often the people can be better fed in a totalitarian regime than in a democratic one. Such things have happened. Time will tell what will happen in our country.”
Mykhailo SYROTA, the Leader of the Toilers’ Party of Ukraine:
“The constitution of any country in the world is a social and political contract between political organizations. Beyond doubt its adoption arouses numerous conflicts, contradictions, and interplay of ideas. Our country’s highest law also came into existence as a result of a compromise. The compromises and contradictions existing in 1996, beyond doubt, have turned into the new ones, since our society is developing very dynamically. Now we have different conflicts which have led to the Nationwide Referendum. One cannot say that its results are in line with the fundamental law. I am very skeptical about attributing the referendum results to the changes supposedly indispensable to society. We cannot elaborate on the shortcomings of the Constitution without fulfilling its principles. The first and foremost drawback is that the society could not and cannot make full use of the supreme law of the land. On the other hand, I can see now that the Constitution needs to be developed, especially in the articles dealing with the Parliament and the Executive. I am convinced that it is today that the amendments should be introduced to the Constitution, which would specify such a notion as Parliamentary majority, which could form and control the government by forming a ruling coalition.”
Serhiy KRYMSKY, professor, Ph.D. in philosophy:
“Unfortunately, we can state that the Day of the Constitution is just another day off for our people so completely devoid of understanding the importance of this holiday. The reason for that is, of course, the population’s low legal culture, which can be attributed to the fact that ever since Soviet times no proper attention has been paid to law as such. It is typical for us to measure people according to the principle of a bad king or a good king. Law is presented as an abstraction which everybody, to make matters worse, tries to circumvent. And add to that the fact that the majority of the population are not knowledgeable in such issues. And until the attitude to law changes, the attitude that the supreme law of the land as a set of rules, starts to prevail, will the Day of the Constitution remain nothing more than merely a day off.
