When comparing the Constitutions of the United States and Ukraine, one of the most important questions is not simply what rights are listed, but how the constitutional system defines the relationship between the individual, the people, and the state.
“We the People” Establish the Constitution
The Constitution of the United States begins with the words “We the People of the United States”. The Preamble then identifies purposes including justice, domestic tranquility, common defense, general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to the present generation and its posterity.
Official source: National Archives — Constitution of the United States.
The people establish the Constitution, but once established, the Constitution becomes the supreme law governing public institutions. Article VI describes the Constitution, federal laws made pursuant to it, and treaties as the “supreme Law of the Land.”
Official source: Congress.gov — Article VI.
The Majority Is Not Unlimited
A political majority in the United States cannot automatically make any policy constitutional simply because a majority supports it.
The First Amendment, for example, places explicit restrictions on Congress in matters including religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.
Official source: Congress.gov — First Amendment.
The U.S. Constitution does not use the word “democracy” to define the federal system. Article IV instead uses the expression “Republican Form of Government.”
Ukraine: The Individual, the People and the State
The Constitution of Ukraine uses a different constitutional structure.
Article 1 defines Ukraine as a sovereign and independent, democratic, social, law-based state.
Article 3 states that the human being, human life and health, honor and dignity, inviolability and security are recognized in Ukraine as the highest social value. It further states that human rights and freedoms determine the content and direction of state activity.
But Article 5 also states that the people are the bearer of sovereignty and the only source of power in Ukraine.
Official source: Verkhovna Rada — Constitution of Ukraine.
The Central Question
The existence of both principles does not automatically prove a legal contradiction. A constitutional system can recognize popular sovereignty while simultaneously protecting individual rights.
The important question is what happens when the interests claimed in the name of “the people,” the state, society, territory, or national interest conflict with the rights of a specific individual.
Does the constitutional structure clearly establish what a political majority may never do to an individual or minority?
Land and National Wealth
Articles 13 and 14 of the Constitution of Ukraine introduce another important constitutional concept. Article 13 places natural resources within the framework of ownership of the Ukrainian people, while Article 14 describes land as the principal national wealth under special state protection.
This creates a different constitutional vocabulary from the American Preamble, which emphasizes justice, welfare and liberty for the people who established the constitutional system and their posterity.
This difference does not by itself establish that one system is correct and the other is defective. But it raises a legitimate structural question about the hierarchy among the individual, collective interests and state power.
UkraineView Constitutional Review
UkraineView will examine this question as a research project rather than begin with a predetermined conclusion.
The investigation will compare constitutional provisions, statutes, court decisions and historical cases in which governments restricted individual rights in the name of collective or national interests.
The central question is:
Does Ukraine’s constitutional system contain structural contradictions between individual rights, popular sovereignty and state power — and, if so, what reforms could resolve them?