Ukraine: totalitarian laws are still in force

Most of the totalitarian laws adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on January 16 and by her on January 28, in fact, retain power. This was reported by "Kommersant-Ukraine" with reference to the Legislation of the Verkhovna Rada. Although Law No. 732-VII on the abolition of repressive norms entered into force on February 2, according to this base, many of them still remain in force.

Dmitry Kotlyar, deputy minister of justice of the country in 2005-2006, explained to the publication that the cause of the situation was the systemic mistake of deputies in the adoption of Law No. 732-VII. Repressive laws on January 16 were documents of a single action - they made amendments to existing legislative acts. Thus, by the time of the entry of Law No. 732-VII, most totalitarian laws were already implemented.

In order to correctly cancel repressive laws, it should have been acted in other ways, Kotlyar continued. "It would be most logical to be a decision of the Rada to cancel the decision to adopt these laws by stating a violation of the procedure during the vote on January 16," he remarked. The Verkhovna Rada instead announced a package of totalitarian laws that lost force. “But then it was necessary to separately register in the text of the law that the previous edition of the laws that acted before making changes was returning to them. For some reason, the deputies missed this,” the lawyer concluded.

To get out of the situation, according to Kotlyar, it is possible, if both the Ministry of Justice and the presidential administration publicly declared laws on January 16 "dead norms". “Such a political statement will reduce the risk, although it does not guarantee that tomorrow someone will not change his mind and will not announce that the norms are acting again,” said the former deputy minister of justice.

It is not known whether the system error was accepted by Law No. 732-VII made by chance or intentionally. There is also no information whether the authorities intend to use this mistake in order to begin to apply totalitarian laws. According to the source of the publication, familiar with the situation in the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry is inclined to recognize the laws on January 16 invalid. Nevertheless, the official positions of the Ministry of Justice, as well as the administration of the president and the Supreme Court, have not yet been made public.

On January 16, the pro -government majority in the Verkhovna Rada with a violation of the procedures adopted 11 repressive laws . President Victor Yanukovych signed these documents, after which they entered into force. However, on January 28, as part of the settlement of the political crisis in the country , 9 out of 11 laws were canceled .