The Main Areas of Ukrainian Legislation

Read the text and fill in the gaps with the appropriate field of law.

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1) Why do we have laws?

2) Where, when and why do you think laws first started?

3) Do you think all laws are good?

4) Would you like to be a lawmaker? What new laws would you like your country to introduce?

5) Do you think the laws in your country are similar to those in other countries?

6) Are there any laws in your country that you think should be made tighter?

7) What’s the craziest law you know of?

8) What do you think of the idea of international laws that would replace all national laws?

9) What new laws do you think we’ll have fifty years from now?

10) What law would you like to make for your English class?

The Ukrainian legislative system is based on the systematically organized legal rules (norms) which are combined to constitute different legal areas - spheres of regulation.

In accordance with the system applied in Ukraine, large law areas are defined in the national legislation.

1. … law comprises the norms devoted to the political and state system, human rights, freedoms and duties of citizens, legal status of the Verkhovna Rada, the President, the Cabinet of Ministers, other central state bodies and local authorities, the Procuracy, the judiciary, territorial structure, state symbols etc. The main source of it is the Constitution.

2. … law combines the legal rules that deal with relations between the state bodies and persons, and administrative offenses as well. The main source of it law is the Code on Administrative Infractions. The newest invention is the system of the administrative courts, which are governed by rules set up in the Administrative Procedural Code of Ukraine.

3. …. law includes the legal rules defining crimes, forms of guilt, punishment, discharge or mitigation. The Criminal Code of Ukraine came into force from September 1, 2001. The main change in the new Criminal Code is the replacement of the death penalty by perpetual imprisonment. It also envisages such new types of punishment such as public work, arrest, deprivation of liberty, and official restrictions for persons on military service. Economic crimes in Ukraine are defined in a separate chapter "Crimes in Economic Sphere" of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

4. … law relates to the commencement of criminal proceedings, investigation, and court examination in criminal cases. The Criminal Procedural Code administers these procedures.

5. … includes the legal rules governing the procedure of the court consideration and solving the disputes and the enforcement of writs. This legal field is governed by the Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine.

6. … law regulates issues of the state budget, banking, tax system etc. and its object of regulation includes money, securities and other financial instruments.

Formation of the financial system of Ukraine is in a permanent progress. The Budget Code was passed at the Verkhovna Rada in 2001.

7. … law comprises provisions governing the ownership and non-property, and intellectual property rights, contracts, torts, etc. The main act in this field of legislation is the newly adopted Civil Code. The other subjects of the new Civil Code are as follows: obligations, contract law, inheritance law, legal entities concept and other. The Code introduces new types of business contracts into the legal practice: factoring, franchising, and rent service or inherited contracts etc.

8. … law relates to the grounds of marriage, its solemnization and dissolution, personal ownership and non-property rights and duties of the spouses, relations between parents and children, adoption issues etc. Such rules are incorporated into the new Family Code adopted in 2002.

9. … law regulates contracts-based relations and deals with conflicts between legal entities, individuals and/or a state. Economic Procedural Code envisages that commercial courts administer actions filed by the business participants regarding protection of their rights and interests.

10. … law includes the legal rules combined in the Labor Code of 2001 that governs the matters of the labor contracts, working hours, holidays and rest days, safety at the working place, wages, sick leave, social protection, the labor disputes resolution, as well as basics of trade union activity.