The Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk held the first meeting of the Scientific Advisory Council under the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the new year.
The main task of the meeting was to discuss ways to update Ukrainian legislation in accordance with new realities, in particular Ukraine’s fight against russian aggression, its consequences and post-war reconstruction of the country.
«After our Victory, the issue of substantial updating of Ukrainian legislation will arise. Already now we have to determine what gaps exist, how we can get rid of contradictions and duplication of legal norms, and what changes are needed in the first place, » Ruslan Stefanchuk emphasized during his opening remarks, where he also noted that he proposes to conduct a kind of «diagnosis» of the current legislation.
According to him, a number of legislative acts need to be revised and improved, but there are several main areas of legislation that require urgent changes: the unified legal practice, the Constitution of Ukraine, wartime laws, international law, European integration.
According to Ruslan Stefanchuk, in the issue of unified legal practice, attention should be paid primarily to the improvement and preparation for the second reading of the draft law on lawmaking (reg. № 5707).
«This is a mega-important reform, a fundamental document that determines the legal force and hierarchical subordination of normative legal acts in the system of legislation of Ukraine. And there will be no more contradictions, such as which of the existing documents to refer to. Because the concepts of each act and their legal force will be defined, » the Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine explained the details of the document.
Also, according to him, the Constitution of Ukraine needs serious attention, because the war has shown that the Basic Law does not allow regulating the whole range of issues. Given that the Constitution cannot be changed during the war, Ruslan Stefanchuk proposes to analyze its current provisions and suggest ways to improve them.
The Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine did not ignore the legislation of martial law, which has become a separate and important area during the war.
«We adopt the lion’s share of laws during the war, but at the level of the laws of Ukraine we need to resolve a number of issues, in particular, compensation for moral and material damage caused by war crimes and the issue of compensation, » Ruslan Stefanchuk stressed and added that international law also plays an important role in this context.
He expressed confidence that russia will definitely be brought to justice and pay for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Parliament, together with the parliaments of other countries, is already developing a legal basis for such procedures.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also drew attention to the European integration direction of the Ukrainian legislation, which has become one of the priorities for the Parliament, taking into account Ukraine’s candidacy for the EU membership.
He said that over the past six months the European integration bills have been considered by the Parliament of Ukraine under a new procedure, each document has a table of compliance with certain EU directives and regulations.
«The adaptation of national legislation to the European one is ahead. And this is a thorough and crucial work for our active progress towards the EU, » Ruslan Stefanchuk stressed during the meeting.
Reference: The Scientific Advisory Council under the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is an advisory body that functions to involve highly qualified legal experts in the field of law in legislative work, preparation of scientific conclusions on the activities of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine that require scientific support.
The body was established on December 31, 2021. Its main tasks are: preparation of proposals for the development of priority areas of the Parliament’s activities; study of problematic issues related to the application of legal norms that arise during the implementation of normative legal acts adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine; scientific support of legislative work.