Peculiarities of the formation and development of Ukrainian political and legal thought in Galicia after March 14, 1923

Abstract

The development of Ukrainian political and legal thought in the western Ukrainian lands after March 14, 1923 is considered. Attention is paid to the peculiarities of formation, the contribution of thinkers and politicians to its content is analyzed. It is emphasized that the activities of such scientists as K. Levytskyi, S. Dnistryanskyi, V. Starosolskyi, S. Tomashivskyi, V. Kuchabskyi, S. Rudnytskyi and others are decisive for the legal opinion of the Ukrainian people, whose scientific works were fundamental for its development from in view of the fact that they formed legal awareness and political culture in Western Ukrainian society, awakened Ukrainians to an active political life, and, therefore, influenced the national development of Galicia in its daily dimension.
 It is noted that after the fall of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic and the introduction of Polish administration in Galicia, significant changes took place in Ukrainian political and legal thought, which on the one hand led to the formation of new right-wing organizations, and on the other - to the spread of communist ideology. It is argued that the most massive and organized was the national- democratic direction, whose representatives in their scientific works formulated the concepts of the Ukrainian national state based on the idea of unconditional recognition of the right of state self-determination of Ukrainians on their ethnic territory on the basis of national democratic traditions and the theory of the right of peoples to self-determination .
 It is emphasized that the theoretical works of Ukrainian thinkers were the methodological base on which Ukrainian political and legal thought developed in Galicia during the period under study. According to Academician S. Dnistryanskyi, the dominant factor in the process of national creation should be the formation of the national consciousness of the Ukrainian people in the way of creating effective public institutions, and only then - the logical and natural acquisition of state independence. It was a legal and most realistic plan of the struggle for the restoration of Ukrainian statehood, because the legislation of the Second Commonwealth did not prohibit the activities of public structures.
 In view of this, the article highlights the role of scientific, cultural and educational, pedagogical, sports, cooperative societies and unions, the clergy and socio-political organizations as leaders of the national state and law-making in Galicia, which de facto replaced the functions of national state bodies and helped Ukrainians to feel like nationally conscious citizens and to choose the right to their own statehood.