Von der 'schweren Geburt' bis zur 'orangenen Revolution' : zehn Jahre ukrainische Verfassung

Abstract

Since the end of Communism, the Constitutional question in Ukraine has been and continues to be difficult. The independence achieved, the country lived for several years under a provisional and transitional constitutional regime. A full post-Soviet constitution was enacted as late as in 1996. As it was drafted as a political compromise, the following years saw a continuous debate about the interpretation, the implementation and the amendment of numerous articles.The orange revolution gave the Constitutional question a new impetus. One of the results of the revolutionary change was a comprehensive amendment which was to redesign the balance of power in the Ukrainian Constitution towards a Parliamentarian system. Yet, the low technical quality of the amendment jeopardizes the implementation of this legislative aim. Furthermore, already now, a comparatively short time after the revolution, some politicians fall back into ways of behaviour which were typical of the Ukrainian pre-revolutionary presidential system and which conform to the political culture of Russia and Belarus rather than to the expectations that Western Europe has towards a future close partner.