The Court examined the case files on the constitutionality of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Counteracting the Abuse of the Rights of People's Deputies of Ukraine in the Legislative Procedure"
17.09.2020
Today, September 17, the Court’s Grand Chamber, at the public part of the plenary hearing in the form of written proceedings, considered the case upon the constitutional petition of 53 People’s Deputies of Ukraine concerning constitutionality of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Counteracting the Abuse of the Rights of People's Deputies of Ukraine in the Legislative Procedure" of 16 April 2020 No.561–IX (hereinafter – the Law).
At the plenary hearing, information of the judge-rapporteur in the case Viktor Kryvenko was heard about the content of the constitutional petition and the grounds to initiate the constitutional proceedings. According to him, the People’s Deputies applied to the Constitutional Court with a petition to declare the Law as non-complying with the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine.
The authors of the petition state that, contrary to the Constitution, the Law stipulates deprivation of a People’s Deputy of a possibility to duly defend his/her right to legislative initiative which he/she, among others, implements by tabling amendments and proposal to the draft laws of Ukraine.
“The legal regulation contained in the Law leads to that People’s Deputies of Ukraine – members of deputy factions and groups are limited in their right to insist on the consideration of their amendments and proposals. These very factions and groups shall determine those proposals of People’s Deputies which will be included to the revised table of the profile committee. In contrast, non-factional deputies will have more rights in the legislative process than members of deputy factions and groups unlike the parliamentarians – members of factions since non-factional deputies will be able to independently insist on consideration of their amendments and proposals”, reads the petition.
The subject of the rights to constitutional petition also argues that during consideration and adoption of the Law the legislative procedure was violated.
The judge-rapporteur informed that in order to provide full and objective consideration of the case and adopt a motivated decision inquiries had been sent to the President of Ukraine, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, National University “Odesa Law Academy”, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and other educational establishments as well as to the Legal Directorate of the Court’s Secretariat and members of the Research and Advisory Council of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
Having examined the case files in the public part of the plenary session, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part for adoption of the decision.
The plenary session was chaired by the Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Oleksandr Tupytskyi.
The subject of the right to constitutional petition, the People’s Deputy of Ukraine Serhiy Vlasenko participated in the Court hearing.
The public part of the plenary session is available at the official Court’s website: http://ccu.gov.ua/kategoriya/2020.
