National Personal Autonomy in the Ukrainian People’s Republic as legislative and constitutional practice: Jewish Community Experience

The article presents an overview of the participation of Jewish national personal autonomy institutions in legislative activity and constitution-making in Ukraine in 1917–1918. The author recognises the leading role they played in drafting the law on national personal autonomy, as well as in its further incorporation into the constitutional text of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. Therefore, the author assesses Ukrainian state-building and constitution-making in 1917–1918 as significantly determined by cooperation between Ukrainian democrats and national minorities, which undoubtedly influenced the constitution-making of the period. How agreement was sought on every particular subject of debate, as well as the heated discussions on the draft law between national minorities and Ukrainian democrats, gives us another argument for more broadly analysing law-making and constitution-making as part of social consensus building. The latter, in turn, became part of the basis and guarantees of the sovereignty of the Ukrainian People’s Republic as a whole.