Public lecture "Priorities in Ukraine's foreign politics"

After today's lecture (about federal judicial selection and preparation for our Senate Judiciary Committee Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing next week), one of my students joined me in attending a Public Lecture about Ukraine's foreign politics delivered by Ambasadorul Ucrainei în Republica Moldova, Excelenţa Sa, Dl Serghii Pyrozhkov, the Ambassador of Ukraine. The lecture was delivered in Russian, so I was especially grateful for her assistance in translating for me.

The Ambassador (PhD, former university professor) delivered an interesting address about the evolution of the foreign policy in the Ukraine -- touching on issues related to the Ukraine's efforts to join NATO and the EU, the Ukraines's policy towards Moldova, including answering questions regarding territorial border of the "breakaway region" of Transnistria

The Constitution of the Ukraine was ratified in 1996; however, I was interested in the Ambassador's comments that the first democratic constitution was from the Ukraine and written decades before the US Constitution. Here is the information about the Pylyp Orlyk Constitution from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website:

http://www.mfa.gov.ua/mfa/en/272.htm

"In the 18th century, Pylyp Orlyk elected Hetman after the death of Ivan Mazepa wrote in a bright page in the history of the world constitutional endeavor. His treatise Pacty i Konstytutsii Zakoniv ta Volnostei Viyska Zaporizkoho (Pacts and Constitutions of Laws and Rights of the Zaporizia Army, 1710) is believed to be the first constitution of the Ukrainian state. Based on the idea of the natural law and the contractual origin of state, in accord with it, the people of Ukraine made a treaty with a Hetman transferring him a share of their freedoms for the sake of securing internal consent and external safety of the state. The document formulated principles of division of representative and executive powers and impartiality of judiciary subordinate only to the law. In general terms, Pylyp Orlyk’s constitution had been concordant with the then tendencies of development of European political thought (in particular, in asserting separation of church from secular arm), and in some aspects even outstripped European political theory and practice (e.g., preferring constitutionalism over the idea of state absolutism and consent enforcement reigning at that time on the Continent)."


For more information about the Ukrainian Embassy in Moldova:

http://www.mfa.gov.ua/moldova