All bills should be mandatorily checked for compliance with the Constitution: only 51 such conclusions were made in 7 years

A bill has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada that could significantly change the procedure for legislative initiatives. The document provides that every bill must mandatorily undergo a check for compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine before being considered by the parliament.

The authors of the initiative claim that the current procedure practically does not work: during the work of the IX convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, more than two thousand bills were adopted, while only a few dozen conclusions regarding their constitutionality were provided.

According to the MPs, mandatory constitutional expertise will improve the quality of legislation and help avoid situations where doubts about compliance with the Constitution arise only after prolonged consideration of the document by the parliament.

Bills should be mandatorily checked for compliance with the Constitution

The draft law "On Amendments to Article 93 of the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine regarding the mandatory assessment of a bill's compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine during preliminary consideration" was submitted by MP Serhiy Demchenko and other parliamentarians.

The document proposes to change the procedure for preliminary consideration of legislative initiatives in parliamentary committees. Currently, after registration, bills are sent for budgetary, anti-corruption, and European integration expertise; in the future, a mandatory conclusion on compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine may be added to this list.

In particular, each bill or draft act after registration is proposed to be sent to the committee responsible for constitutional law issues to provide a conclusion on its compliance with the Basic Law of the state.

Why the authors consider the current procedure ineffective

It is emphasized that the Constitution of Ukraine has the highest legal force, and all laws and other normative legal acts must be adopted based on it and comply with its provisions. Therefore, checking a bill for compliance with the Constitution should be one of the key stages of the legislative process.

The authors of the bill note that the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada already provide for the possibility of such a check. However, today it is not mandatory. The Committee on Constitutional Law can provide the relevant conclusion only upon request of the main committee or on its own initiative.

According to the initiators, practice has shown that this mechanism does not effectively ensure proper control over the constitutionality of legislative initiatives.

2051 bills and only 51 conclusions: Verkhovna Rada statistics

One of the main arguments in favor of legislative changes was the statistics from the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada.

During the entire period of the IX convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, 2051 bills were adopted in the first and second readings. At the same time, the committee responsible for constitutional law issues provided only 51 conclusions regarding the compliance of bills with the Constitution of Ukraine.

Of these conclusions:

• 45 conclusions were prepared in 2019–2020;
• 5 in 2021;
• none in 2022;
• 1 in 2023;
• none in 2024;
• none in 2025;
• none in 2026.

The authors note that such statistics indicate the almost complete ineffectiveness of the current procedure for checking legislative initiatives for compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine.

Constitutionality issues often arise only after prolonged consideration

It is emphasized that in practice, questions regarding the compliance of bills with the Constitution often arise at later stages of the legislative process. Because of this, the parliament, its committees, and structural units of the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada spend additional time, organizational, and expert resources processing documents that may contain constitutional problems from the moment of registration.

The authors also note that most conclusions of the Main Legal Department of the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada, which are prepared during the preparation of bills for the second reading, contain separate remarks regarding compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine. This, in their opinion, indicates a systemic nature of the problem.

How the new bill review mechanism will work

Bill No. 15330 proposes amendments to parts one and three of Article 93 of the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

After registration, each bill or draft act must be sent to the committee on constitutional law issues for the relevant assessment no later than five days.

The conclusion of this committee must be sent to the main committee within 21 days from the date of receipt of the document. Subsequently, such a conclusion will be attached to the general package of materials during the preliminary consideration of the bill.

Effectively, constitutional expertise will become a mandatory component of the legislative procedure alongside budgetary, anti-corruption, and European integration assessments.

A conclusion of unconstitutionality can already stop a bill now

According to the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada, a conclusion by the relevant committee about a bill's non-compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine is grounds for returning the document to the subject of the legislative initiative without including it in the session agenda and without consideration at the plenary session of the parliament.

Therefore, according to the authors of the document, the constitutionality check should be carried out immediately after the registration of the legislative initiative, not after passing several stages of parliamentary consideration.

Expected consequences of adopting the bill

The authors of the legislative initiative predict that mandatory assessment of bills for compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine will improve the quality of draft laws, ensure more consistent adherence to constitutional principles during lawmaking, and reduce the burden on the Verkhovna Rada, its committees, and the parliamentary Apparatus.

It is also noted that implementing the provisions of the bill will not require additional expenditures from the State Budget of Ukraine.

If adopted, the law will come into force the day following its official publication.

Subscribe to our Telegram channel t.me/sudua and to Google News SUD.UA, as well as to our VIBER and WhatsApp, page on Facebook and on Instagram to stay informed about the most important events.