Consideration of the case on the constitutionality of the Law of Ukraine
"On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language"
On July 7, the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine began consideration of the case upon the constitutional petition of 51 People’s Deputies of Ukraine on compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality) of the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language" of April 25, 2019 № 2704 – VIII at the plenary session under oral procedure.
The petitioners claim that the disputed Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language” of April 25, 2019 № 2704 – VIII (hereinafter - the Law) is discriminatory against “Russian-speaking citizens” and certain linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples.
The subject of the right to constitutional petition also considers that the Law was adopted in violation of the constitutional procedure for its consideration and adoption.
Judge-Rapporteur in the case Serhiy Holovaty stated the content of the constitutional petition and the grounds for initiating constitutional proceedings, and also said that in order to ensure full and objective consideration of the case and adoption of the Court's decision, inquiries had been sent to a number of public authorities, educational and research institutions to express their positions on issues raised in the constitutional petition. The Judge-Rapporteur briefly informed about the answers to the inquiries received from the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Commissioner for Human Rights, National Institute for Strategic Studies, Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Ilya Mechnikov Odessa National University, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, State Higher Educational Institution “Uzhhorod National University”, Head of the Department of Legal Problems of Political Science of the Volodymyr Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine Iryna Kresina, as well as the conclusions of the Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, the Center for Political and Legal Reforms, received by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. According to the Judge-Rapporteur, the case files also contain the Scientific and Expert Opinion of the Legal Department of the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The Court upheld the proposal of the Judge-Rapporteur to involve the Head of the National Commission on the State Language Standards, Doctor of Philology, Professor Orysia Demska.
The Court heard the positions of the participants in the constitutional proceedings on the subject of constitutional review, in particular: the representative of the subject matter of the constitutional petition Oleksandr Dolzhenkov, the Permanent Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Olha Sovhyria and the Representative of the President of Ukraine to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Fedir Venislavskyi.
Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov; Director of the Institute of Linguistics named after Oleksandr Potebnia of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Philology Bohdan Azhniuk; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine, Professor of the Department of International and European Law of Law Faculty of National University "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor Volodymyr Vasylenko; Director of the Institute of the Ukrainian Language of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Philology, Professor Pavlo Hrytsenko; People's Deputy of Ukraine, Member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Mykola Kniazhytskyi; People's Deputy of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy; Professor of the Department of Theory and Practice of Translation from Romance Languages named after Mykola Zerov of the Institute of Philology of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Doctor of Philology Oleksandr Cherednychenko as involved participants in the constitutional proceedings, also stated their position.
The Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Tupytskyi chaired the plenary session.
A break was announced in the consideration of this case. At the next plenary session, which will be held on July 9, the Court will continue consideration of the case, in particular by hearing other participants in the constitutional proceedings.
The public part of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the following link: http://ccu.gov.ua/kategoriya/2020.
