Popular legislative initiative: foreign experience and prospects of implementation in Ukraine

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The article clarifies the historical aspects and current features of the constitutional regulation of the people’s legislative initiative in foreign countries; attempts to introduce a popular legislative initiative before the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in 1996 were analyzed; the shortcomings of the attempt to constitutionally regulate the people’s legislative initiative by submitting a draft law on amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine in 2019 have been clarified, and their own proposals for further changes have been expressed. A conclusion was made regarding the existence of such types of people’s initiative as: people’s initiative on holding a referendum, people’s legislative initiative, people’s constitutional initiative, local initiative. The following features of the people’s legislative initiative can be distinguished, based on the analysis of the foreign experience of the constitutionalization of the relevant institution: 1) It is an optional instrument along with traditional subjects, such as the Government, deputies, the President, etc.; 2) Constitutions indicate the minimum number of citizens (mainly voters) who have the right to the relevant popular legislative initiative; 3) Constitutions, as a rule, stipulate the implementation of a popular legislative initiative by the rules established in a special law. The popular legislative initiative is inferior in importance, for example, to such an institution of direct democracy as a referendum. At the same time, the spread of the popular legislative initiative in the world makes it a fairly traditional element of constitutional design and demonstrates respect for popular sovereignty, democracy, and human rights. In Ukraine, during the drafting of the draft Constitution, there was a rather progressive version of the people’s legislative initiative, which the constitutional commission subsequently rejected. In our opinion, the caveat expressed by the CCU in its opinion No. 5-в/2019 dated November 13, 2019 is quite significant, and the number of voters’ votes that must be submitted in support of the relevant draft law must be directly defined in the Constitution itself. That is why it is worth developing and submitting after the end of martial law a new draft law on amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine with the aim of normalizing the people’s legislative initiative.