Dmytro Terletskyi: “Pandemia is Not an Excuse to Disclaim Constitution and Challenge Democracy”
The delegation of powers of parliament, government or president to one another or any other authority is not in conformity with the current Constitution and may pose a threat to democracy. This is the point of Dmytro Terletskyi, a participant of the Program, candidate of judicial sciences, and associate professor.
He commented on the initiative of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov, supported by Prime Minister Denys Shmygal during the Cabinet of Ministers meeting on March 18, to draft a bill governing the above.
Earlier that time, the Prime Minister has instructed to develop a bill that, in his opinion, “would allow state bodies to delegate a part of their authority to another government body for making the crucial decisions for the life of the country”.
“Because we do not really know, what the consequences will be: whether the Verkhovna Rada will be blocked, or the Cabinet, or the President … will be unable to exercise the powers,” – said Denys Shmygal.
“If we omit all the assumptions about what the Prime Minister really meant and focus on “delegation of power” between the three highest authorities, such an idea is not in line with the current Constitution and could pose a threat to democracy.
Any changes in this direction can violate the constitutionally determined balance between branches of state power and lead to usurpation of state power,” Dmytro Terletskyi noted, adding, “one could hardly choose a more vulnerable moment to generate such dangerous initiatives in state that is in its sixth year of actual warfare”.
Full text of the article is published on the Program web-site and available in Ukrainian.
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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the position of the “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” Program, the Ukrainian Bar Association, the Bar Association of Legal Aid Providers, the Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine Project, the Canadian Bureau for International Education, or the Government of Canada and the Law Enforcement Section of the United States Embassy in Ukraine.
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