Human rights as the foundation of civil society are
first formed in the legal culture. Further, human rights fixed
by the Constitution and the laws and are guaranteed
by the State. It can be
argued that the development of civil society and the
formation of legal culture are mutually determinable processes.
Hence, the development
of civil society in Ukraine depends on consolidation in the
legal culture of the idea of human rights and freedoms, which
can unite the whole society and encourage it to
qualitatively new economic, cultural and legal achievements.
The legal culture in Ukraine reflects
the unity between past (the legal tradition), the current
state of the Ukrainian legal system (legal reality)
and public perception about its desired status
(legal ideal).
At the same time, legal culture of
Ukrainians as part of the general culture of the Ukrainian
society was
formed in historically challenging conditions. Its formation came under the
influence of legal cultures of Byzantium, the Grand Duchy
of Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, the Crimean Khanate, Tsarist
Russia and the Soviet Union. With that there were several
substantial sources of the law which acted in the territory of Ukraine from the Kievan Rus ' and ending our days. A
special role among the sources of law in Ukraine have Rus’ - Byzantine Treaties and "Rus'ka Pravda", which also had a
significant impact on the development of legal systems
of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (modern Lithuania) and the
Polish Kingdom (modern Poland). The great value of Ukrainian
lands had also the Statutes of
Lithuania and the Common law of Cossacks. In the future, after
the accession of Ukraine to Russia in 1654, the legal
system of Ukraine was under the influence of Tsarist
Russia and the Soviet Union before gaining independence in
1991.
At the present stage of its development the legal culture of
Ukrainians is the system of relations
between the person and the right. This system is characterized
by the following negative and positive factors: the
legal nihilism, the lack of trust in the judicial system, the
low level of legal literacy,
the powerful volunteer
movement.
As the antipode of legal culture the legal nihilism of a considerable part
of Ukrainians finds its expression in the denial of
social and personal values of the law. Most Ukrainians consider
the law as an imperfect instrument for regulating relations in society. In everyday life more convenient
and reliable way looks the soft corruption,
and at the State level (until recently) dominated the animal acquisitiveness based on the pathological greed
The economic foundation
of a legal nihilism is the total impoverishment
of the absolute majority of Ukrainians. The minimum wage in
Ukraine is 65 euros per month, and the average wage is 150 euros per month. In a
crisis situation today Ukrainians are
increasingly operating not in accordance with the legal
and moral standards, but under the influence of the
negative environment in which they find themselves.
In the mass consciousness is
cultivated anti legal dependence: not profitable to live by the law - is more
profitable to ignore the law. At
the level of public consciousness of the failure of the
law does not always cause condemnation,
because in the past the
Soviet Ukrainian Government was seen ordinary Ukrainians as the
enemy and not complying with the laws of such State looked like a kind
of protest against the administrative-command system.
The paradox is also the fact that many
of the older generation were felt more secure under a totalitarian regime and do not
perceive the democratic transformation for ideological reasons.
In addition, the Soviet
Union had deliberately cultivated a low level of legal
literacy of citizens,
which was achieved in particular through
the difficult access to the legal literature (codes
can buy only lawyers on a subscription basis). The state of legal illiteracy of the
Ukrainians was in the
interests of a totalitarian
Government.
Thus, there is the
struggle of two legal culture traditions
in Ukraine: the former, traditional legal culture of the
totalitarian regime and the new, legal
culture of independent Ukraine.
The lack of trust in the
judicial system among Ukrainians showed such facts. More
than 80% of Ukrainians believe that the right to a fair
trial is a privilege of the rich part
of the population. More than 50%
of the Ukrainians, who have faced legal problems, did not
even attempt to defend their rights, because they believe that
their efforts will lead nowhere in
connection with the total corruption, which pervades the
entire judicial system of Ukraine.
In the context of corruption in
the Ukrainian legal system, attention is drawn to the fact that
the first place in purchasing expensive estates in Ukraine
is taken by the judge, the second place is occupied by the
representatives of the internal revenue service, the third
place belongs to the prosecutors, fourth place: the
police and only the fifth place taken by businessmen.
It should be noted
that corruption is an integral part of self-regulation of
Ukrainian society, which does not have a
persistent tradition of democracy, legal State and civil society. In
Ukrainian society, without well-established State institutions
and the high level of self-organization, the bribes to replace the State
institutions and demonstrate the effectiveness of
corrupt relations at the present stage of development of
Ukrainian society.
In view of the emergency
situation with corruption in the judicial system of Ukraine, the
supreme legislative body of Ukraine -Verkhovna
Rada (the Supreme Council) adopted the
law of Ukraine "On restoring confidence in the judicial
system in Ukraine" dated April 8, 2014 years.
This law defines the legal
and organizational framework for conducting ad hoc
checks of judges of courts of general jurisdiction as
temporary enhanced event using the existing procedures,
consideration of questions about the prosecution of judges
of courts of general jurisdiction to disciplinary liability and dismissal for
breach of the oath in order to enhance the credibility of
the judiciary and the confidence of citizens to the judicial
branch, the restoration of legality and justice.
To the positive factors influencing on the Ukrainian
legal culture can be attributed to the Ukrainian mentality and the modern Ukrainian’s volunteer movement. Features of the Ukrainian mentality:
the love for the land and private property (individualism), the domination of the feelings over the reason, the lack of system (emotionality), the desire for freedom
(love of freedom), the ability to adapt to the existing order (social mimicry),
the faith of Ukrainians in their fundamental Christian entity (orthodoxy), the
self-esteem and the rejection of authority (anarchism).
During the years of independence, the Ukrainian State has
not developed, and has been steadily degraded to the state of fragile public
form. At the same time, civil society through two revolutions (Maidan 2004 and
Maydan 2013) has reached a high level of development. This is evident in the
current military confrontation with Russia.
The Ukrainian State and army could
not save Ukraine. Ukraine was saved by civil society. Have been formed of 30
volunteer battalions for participation in hostilities.
In general, not
generous people, Ukrainians nevertheless raised more than $ 10 million to the
needs of the Ukrainian army. In addition to money the Ukrainians through
volunteers to supply the army with food, clothing and military equipment.
The
desire to defend their independence and willingness to fight for their country,
said about the formation of civil society in Ukraine.
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