A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF PYLYP ORLYK AND THE US DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

This comparative study highlights the peculiarities of the formation of legal acts in times of state crises and changes in the international diplomatic system. This analysis is a thorough one within the framework of understanding the process of formation of political systems in the world and focuses on the issue of identifying the factors that formed the relevant context for the signing of the documents under study. Thus, the established research hypothesis formed the basis of the work and determined the appropriate methodology, namely, the use of comparative, historical, systematic, and other general scientific methods of knowledge. The historical periods outlined in this work, which characterize the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk and the Declaration of Independence of the United States, have several common factors of identification in accordance with the geopolitical context, namely, manifestations of nationalism, the desire to establish a single regulatory order (formation of integral legal systems), formation of the nation and, accordingly, its struggle for independence. Considering such manifestations of the social order within the framework of modern international relations and domestic policymaking, the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk and the US Declaration of Independence have common ideological foundations and, therefore, shape modern political rhetoric that seeks peace and freedom in the world. Accordingly, the historical legal acts under consideration have several common fundamental practices that have become new and fundamental for the state system of that time and have formed the basis of the current political life of a sovereign state. In particular, the author examined such aspects as the historical background of the signing, described the forms of government, rights and freedoms of citizens, the role of religion, etc., which allowed to reveal the essence of the selected legal acts and outline the importance of their study for the modern academic community. Thus, the historical context of the adoption of the described legal acts is based on an understanding of the process of formation of the concept of national identity and the historical preconditions that dictated the need for the legal consolidation of independence and territorial integrity. One of the main features of the US Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk is the introduction of an independent legal system, namely the establishment of three branches of government and the compliance of other branches with the judiciary (i. e., power could not be distributed randomly, only according to the rights and obligations to the state established by law). Accordingly, the described legal acts were in many ways the first in the formation of statehood that resembles the regulatory framework of modern social legal systems.