On 22 October 2024, at the public part of the plenary session, the Grand Chamber of the Court in the form of written proceedings deliberated cases upon the constitutional petitions of 48 and 53 People’s Deputies of Ukraine regarding the compliance of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the Terms of Agricultural Land Turnover”, specific provisions of the Land Code of Ukraine as amended by the said law with the Constitution of Ukraine.
The judge-rapporteur in this case, Galyna Yurovska, noted that the respective constitutional proceedings, given that they raised the issue of compliance, in particular, of the Law, with the Constitution of Ukraine, were consolidated into one proceeding.
The content of the constitutional petitions suggests the following.
People’s Deputies of Ukraine requested to declare unconstitutional the Law, provisions of Articles 130.1.6, 130.1.7, 130.1.8, 130.1.9, 130.2, 130.4, 130.6, 145.1, paragraphs 6¹, subparagraphs 15 “a”, 15 “b” of Section X of the Transitional Provisions of the Code.
The authors of the petitions believe that the Law is unconstitutional, as its adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was in violation of the constitutional procedure for deliberation and adoption. The provisions of the Law, as well as its purpose, contradict the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine. The People’s Deputies of Ukraine also emphasise that issues relating to land owned by the Ukrainian people cannot be resolved without the will of the citizens of Ukraine being expressed in an all-Ukrainian referendum.
In order to ensure a full and objective deliberation of the case and the Court's adoption of a reasoned decision, inquiries were sent to bodies of state power, educational establishments, scientific institutions and members of the Scientific and Advisory Council of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to express their opinions on the issues raised in the relevant constitutional petitions. The responses to the inquiries will be examined at the in-camera part of the plenary session of the Grand Chamber of the Court.
In addition, during the public part of the plenary session, the Court also deliberated two motions from representatives of the subject of the right to constitutional petition: to declare the constitutional proceedings in this case as urgent and to change the form of constitutional proceedings from written to oral. Following the deliberation, the Court dismissed them, while noting that in accordance with the requirements of Article 64.3 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Constitutional Court of Ukraine”, in a case deliberated by the Court in written proceedings, certain issues may be deliberated in oral proceedings.
After examining the case file in the public part, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session to further discuss issues related to the constitutional proceedings in this case.
The plenary session was attended by representatives of the subject of the right to constitutional petition, People’s Deputies of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko and Serhiy Vlasenko, and the representative of the President of Ukraine in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serhiy Dembovsky.
A video recording of the public part of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Court here: https://sv1.ccu.gov.ua/video_ccu1/ksu_22_10_2024.mp4.
