“-IX” Is the 9th Convocation of Parliament: A Clue to Reading Ukrainian Laws in the Original

Ukrainian laws carry numbers such as “No. 4223-IX.” The Roman numeral at the end, “IX,” indicates the convocation of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) that adopted the law; IX is the 9th convocation, which held its first sitting on August 29, 2019. A Cabinet resolution is numbered simply, such as “No. 856,” and the same number recurs in a different year. A presidential decree includes the year, as in “No. 512/2024.”

The original texts of legal acts can be read by anyone in the database the Verkhovna Rada operates, “Legislation of Ukraine” (zakon.rada.gov.ua). Knowing how to read the numbers, the types of dates, and the status labels lets you check for yourself when a “new law” you saw in the news actually took effect, and whether it is still in force. The following is based on how the database displayed things as of September 2026.

Who Issues What

Under the Constitution, laws are adopted by the Verkhovna Rada and signed by its Chairperson and the President (Article 94). Based on the Constitution and laws, the President issues “указ” (decrees) and “розпорядження” (directives) (Article 106), and the Cabinet issues “постанова” (resolutions) and “розпорядження” (directives) (Article 117). The roles of the three bodies are explained in What the President, the Verkhovna Rada, and the Cabinet of Ukraine Each Decide.

Law Numbers: The Roman Numeral Is the Convocation of Parliament

Most law numbers take the form “serial number + hyphen + Roman numeral.” For example:

The way the Roman numerals are counted was changed once, in the past. Law No. 1420-XIV of February 1, 2000 provided that the “12th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic”—the legislature at the time of the declaration of independence on August 24, 1991—would be counted as the “1st convocation” of the Verkhovna Rada of independent Ukraine, and that the parliaments elected in 1994 and 1998 would be the 2nd and 3rd convocations respectively. The number of this very law itself remains “XIV,” using the counting method carried over from the Soviet era; the same is why the 1993 law is numbered “XII.” Some laws from the mid-1990s combine the year with “ВР” (Verkhovna Rada), such as “280/97-ВР” for the 1997 local self-government law, or “254к/96-ВР” for the 1996 Constitution.

Laws of parliaments elected after the 2000 law carry the convocation number under the new counting method. The 2003 Civil Code is “IV,” and the 2012 language-policy law is “VI.” The bill record for Law No. 4223-IX states it was “adopted in the 9th convocation, 12th session.”

The Number in the URL Uses a Different Count

In the database’s URLs, a different Arabic numeral is used instead of the Roman numeral. A document’s information field (card) shows both side by side, as in “4223-IX або 4223-20,” “435-IV або 435-15,” and “5029-VI або 5029-17.” Comparing them shows that the URL number continues the old counting method (12th convocation, 14th convocation, and so on): the 9th convocation corresponds to 20, and the 4th to 15. It is useful to keep this in mind when typing a URL by hand, or when another source writes “4223-20,” so you can recognize it as the same law.

Cabinet Resolution and Presidential Decree Numbers

Cabinet resolution numbers restart from 1 every year, so the same number recurs each year. For example, there are two resolutions numbered “No. 856”: one from August 4, 2021 (terms of housing finance leases), and one from August 2, 2022 (terms of the єОселя mortgage program), and the 2022 No. 856 in fact amends the 2021 No. 856. When citing a Cabinet resolution, always attach a date or year to the number.

In the database’s URLs, the year and a symbol for the type are added. A resolution (постанова) becomes something like “856-2022-п,” and a directive (розпорядження) becomes “1209-2024-р.” The database’s number field displays the latter as “No. 1209-р.” A presidential decree’s number already includes the year, and “512/2024” is used as-is in the URL.

The content of the єОселя program is introduced in Some Borrow at 3%, Others at 7%: Ukraine’s “єОселя” Mortgage Program.

Adoption, Signature, Promulgation, Entry into Force, and the Start of Application

A law has at least four dates. Under Article 94 of the Constitution, a law adopted by the Verkhovna Rada is signed by its Chairperson, and the President, within 15 days of receiving it, either signs and promulgates it or returns it to parliament with proposals. Unless the law itself provides otherwise, it enters into force 10 days after promulgation. However, it cannot enter into force before it is published in a newspaper or similar outlet.

Tracing the record of the mental-health law (No. 4223-IX) gives the following:

This law provided that it would “enter into force the day after promulgation and begin application one year after promulgation.” “Entering into force” and “the start of application” are separate stages, so even when the news reports that “a law has taken effect,” its substance may not actually start operating until later.

Some cases stretch even further out. The law “On Law-Making Activity” (No. 3354-IX) of August 24, 2023 entered into force on September 20, 2023, but its application is set to begin “one year after martial law ends or is lifted.” In the database’s record, the field for the start of application remained, as of September 2026, in the status “scheduled to enter into force.” On martial law, see What Is and Is Not Suspended Under Ukraine’s Martial Law.

The same applies to Cabinet resolutions: Resolution No. 794 of June 17, 2026 was published in the government newspaper Uriadovyi Kurier on June 23, and entered into force on July 17, the date the resolution itself set.

Promulgation Is Through the Official Gazette and the Parliamentary and Government Newspapers

Article 57 of the Constitution states that legal acts defining citizens’ rights and duties must be brought to the public’s attention in the manner prescribed by law, and that acts not so brought to attention have no force. According to the presidential decree of June 10, 1997, “On the Procedure for the Official Promulgation of Legal Acts and Their Entry into Force,” which sets out the method of promulgation, the official outlets are the Official Gazette of Ukraine (Офіційний вісник України) and the government newspaper Uriadovyi Kurier; for acts of the Verkhovna Rada, Holos Ukrainy and the Bulletin of the Verkhovna Rada are also included, and for presidential acts, the Presidential Bulletin is included as well. The same decree states that a legal act published in other outlets has only an informational character and cannot be used for official application.

At the end of each document in the database there is a field, “Публікації документа” (Publication of the document), showing which newspaper or gazette, and which issue, it was published in.

Reading “чинний” and “редакція”

At the end of a database document, a line such as “Законодавство України станом на 24.09.2026 чинний” shows the date the data reflects and the status of the document. The main labels are as follows:

No. 5029-VI is the 2012 language-policy law. The subsequent State Language Law is covered in Serving Customers After 18 Months, Local Newspapers After 5 Years: Ukraine’s Phased-In State Language Law.

Another important term is “редакція” (redaction/version). An act that has been amended many times is displayed in the database as a version consolidating those amendments. For example, the єОселя Resolution No. 856 carries “Редакція від 17.07.2026, підстава — 794-2026-п,” which shows this is the version as of July 17, 2026, and that its basis is Resolution No. 794. The Constitution carries “Редакція від 01.01.2020, підстава — 27-IX.”

Curly braces “{ }” in the body of the text carry notes on which paragraph was changed by which amendment. Earlier versions can also be opened from the “Історія” (History) section of the card. If an article cited by a news report or a paper differs from the article as currently displayed, first compare the dates of the versions.

Frequently Encountered Words