Seven Amendment Laws, One Struck Down as Unconstitutional: Thirty Years of Ukraine’s Constitution

At the head of the text of Ukraine’s Constitution in the Verkhovna Rada’s (parliament’s) legal database is a list of seven laws that have amended it, dating from 2004 to 2019. The first of these was struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2010 as having “violated constitutional procedure,” and parliament restored its content in 2014. Amendments have stopped since 2019, because the Constitution itself bans amendments under the martial law that has been in effect since February 24, 2022.

This article traces how the Constitution adopted in 1996 has been rewritten, through the text of the amendment laws and the Constitutional Court’s decisions. The text follows the Verkhovna Rada’s legal database as of September 2026. The powers of the president, the Verkhovna Rada, and the Cabinet themselves are explained in our article on what Ukraine’s president, Verkhovna Rada, and Cabinet each decide.

June 28, 1996: After 23 Hours of Debate

According to the entry “Constitution of Ukraine” in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU), published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta (written by Bohdan Harasymiw, 2023), Ukraine was the last of the former Soviet republics to adopt a new constitution — even after independence, it had continued using the Soviet-era 1978 constitution, amended along the way. Amid ongoing conflict between the president and parliament, President Kuchma issued a decree on June 25 putting the constitution to a referendum, and the Verkhovna Rada, after 23 hours of debate, adopted the Constitution on June 28, 1996, by a vote of 315 to 36.

The Constitution as adopted consists of 161 articles across 14 chapters, plus a chapter of transitional provisions. Article 161 designates the day the Constitution was adopted as the national holiday “Constitution Day” — that is, June 28. The treatment of public holidays under martial law is covered in our article on Ukraine’s public holidays.

The Amendment Procedure: Six Articles in Chapter 13

How the Constitution may be amended is set out in Chapter 13 (Articles 154–159), a procedure with several stages, far heavier than for an ordinary law.

Article 157(2), which bans amendments under martial law, was already present in the text as adopted in 1996.

The Seven Amendment Laws

The amendment laws listed in the note at the head of the Constitution, and the related decisions, are set out below in chronological order. “Taking effect” follows the entry on each law’s record card in the legal database.

2004 to 2014: Amendment, Unconstitutionality, and Restoration

The 2004 amendment was adopted in the midst of the Orange Revolution over the presidential election. The IEU explains it as the result of a compromise among President Kuchma and the candidates Yanukovych and Yushchenko. According to the text of the amendment law, it was to take effect on the date a law amending local self-government was enacted, if by September 1, 2005, or otherwise on January 1, 2006; in fact, it took effect on January 1, 2006.

On September 30, 2010, the Constitutional Court, acting on a petition from 252 members of parliament, ruled the amendment law unconstitutional. What the decision took issue with was not its content but its procedure. According to the decision, the Constitutional Court had issued its opinion on the amendment bill (No. 4180) on October 12, 2004. The Verkhovna Rada, however, subsequently rewrote the bill further and passed it on December 8 without seeking the Constitutional Court’s opinion on the rewritten version. This violated the procedure in Article 159, the decision reasoned. It held that the amendment law lost effect on the date of the decision, and that the provisions in force before the change would be restored.

On February 21, 2014, amid the Euromaidan protests, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Law No. 742-VII, “On the Restoration of the Effect of Certain Provisions of the Constitution.” It restored the 2004 amendment’s provisions, together with the subsequent 2011 and 2013 amendments. The next day, February 22, Verkhovna Rada Resolution No. 750-VII was also issued, confirming the same content. Its preamble states that the Constitutional Court has neither the power to review the constitutionality of parts of the Constitution nor the power to change it. Law No. 742-VII was signed by Turchynov, the Verkhovna Rada Chairman then acting as president, and took effect on March 2, 2014. This largely restored the form the Constitution had held since 2006.

2016: Rewriting the Judiciary Chapter

The 2016 amendment substantially rewrote the judiciary chapter. Under the amendment law, the High Council of Justice, which handles the appointment and dismissal of judges, is made up of 21 members, of whom 10 are elected by the Congress of Judges. The “Prosecutor’s Office” chapter that had been in the 1996 Constitution was deleted. This amendment also introduced the “constitutional complaint,” by which a person may petition the Constitutional Court when they believe a law applied in their case is unconstitutional.

The amendment law also included a provision allowing Ukraine to recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court under the terms of the Rome Statute. This provision alone was to take effect three years after promulgation. Judicial reform following the 2016 amendment is covered in our article on Ukraine’s judicial reform.

2019: The EU and NATO, and Parliamentary Immunity

The amendment of February 2019 added to the Constitution’s preamble the words “confirming the European identity of the Ukrainian people and the irreversibility of Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic course.” It went on to write the “strategic course of the state” toward full membership in the EU and NATO into the Verkhovna Rada’s power to determine the fundamentals of domestic and foreign policy (Article 85), the provision that the president is the guarantor of the realization of that course (Article 102), and the Cabinet’s duty to ensure its realization (Article 116).

The same amendment deleted Item 14 of the transitional provisions. In the 1996 text, this item permitted foreign military units to temporarily use existing military bases in Ukraine, under lease terms set out in a treaty ratified by parliament. The subsequent course of accession negotiations is covered in our article on the EU accession negotiations.

The amendment of September 2019 rewrote Article 80, which set out parliamentary immunity. In the 1996 text, a member of parliament could not be held criminally liable, detained, or arrested without the Verkhovna Rada’s consent. All that remains in the amended Article 80 is a provision that a member cannot be held legally liable for a vote or statement made in parliament (except for insult or defamation). According to the legal database, the Constitutional Court upheld this amendment law as constitutional in a decision of November 1, 2022.

No Amendments Under Martial Law

Martial law was declared on February 24, 2022, the day Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, and its extension has continued as of September 2026. Under Article 157(2) of the Constitution, it cannot be amended during this period. Article 19 of the Law on the Legal Regime of Martial Law (No. 389-VIII, 2015) likewise bans amending the Constitution during martial law. The full range of what is suspended under martial law is covered in our article on martial law.

As of September 2026, the note on the Constitution in the Verkhovna Rada’s legal database lists Law No. 27-IX of September 2019 as the most recent amendment. The provisions of the Constitution mean that no further amendment can be enacted until martial law ends.