Interested persons as participants in law-making activities: problems and prospects of the constitutional and legal framework in Ukraine

The article provides a comprehensive constitutional and legal analysis of the institution of interested persons as a novel category of participants in law-making activities in Ukraine. The relevance of the study is driven by the rapid transformation of the domestic legal system in the context of European integration, which requires an irreversible transition to a modern model of public administration and the direct involvement of civil society institutions in the formation of public policy. The starting point of the research is the adoption of the Law of Ukraine «On Law-Making Activity,» which for the first time at the legislative level established the legal definition and official status of interested persons, empowering them with effective instruments of influence. The purpose of the scientific publication is to clarify the constitutional and legal nature of interested persons, identify key problems of their involvement in rule-making, and develop conceptual proposals for improving the regulatory framework. The paper reveals the classification of interested persons and thoroughly analyzes the forms of their participation: initiating the drafting of normative acts, involvement in the development of analytical documents (in particular, «green papers»), participation in public consultations, and the implementation of legal lobbying. It is proven that despite the creation of a progressive regulatory framework, in practice, there are significant risks to the democratic legitimacy of law-making. Drawing on modern foreign doctrine, it is substantiated that the dominance of well-resourced corporate groups over organizations protecting broad public interests critically reduces citizens’ trust in government decisions. It is emphasized that the deficit of procedural legitimacy is not compensated by a substantively high-quality text of the act. Regulatory and procedural problems caused by the postponed entry into force of new laws and the lack of legislative synchronization are also identified. To minimize the imbalance of influence, promising pathways are proposed: systemic harmonization of the norms of the laws «On Law-Making Activity», «On Lobbying», and «On Public Consultations,» as well as the expansion of electronic democracy tools.