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Characteristics of the Borderland Legal Conscience: the Ukrainian Variant of the Idea of Federalism
historical destiny; we believe that a state is a free union of equal in rights and equivalent
nations among which there should be neither oppressors, nor oppressed. So, we fought
and we shall fight for the democratic autonomy of Ukraine guaranteed by the federa-
tion of free people... Achieving the chosen goal, we search for allies..., who will support
our main demands - the independent-federal structure of the state organization on a
democratic basis”
9
. Thus, even before the disintegration of empires in the conditions of
their most severe military opposition the political statement of the FUP bears a print of
consciousness of the nation of “mezhderzhavje” (interpower). For the Ukrainian political-
legal idea it was easier to change the opinion about the nature of the state, than to develop
the strategy of construction of an independent national Ukrainian state.
When studying the political statements of the Ukrainian figures at the beginning of
the XX century one can feel strong influence of the ethical-sociological approach rooted
in the legal science of the beginning of the century due to works of E.V. Spektorsky. In E.V.
Spektorsky’s theory of the state the idea of self-government as the idea of wide decen-
tralization of society management seemed premature for Russian society, but to the full
displayed the prospect of development of ideas about the formation of civil society and
its role in the state of the future.
In E.V. Spektorsky’s opinion, the state should be viewed as a formation based on mor-
als. The existence of the social justice idea is connected exactly with moral nature. Ideas
and believes of community become the basis for the functioning of the state. As a matter
of fact, if we add the predicate “national” to the given formula of the state as a non-
definite idea of community then it is possible to say that such a position can be seen as a
theoretical-legal substantiation of the rise of the national state, and principles of federal-
ism represent the process of decentralization of power, delegation of imperious functions
to
civil society, development of self-organization citizens.
E.V. Spektorsky touched upon the main problem of the liberal social order, namely,
the necessity to restrict the state by society and to limit human rights by society and by the
state. But ethical beliefs serve as the mechanism of compulsion
in the given concept
10
.
V. V. Ivanovsky offered to expand the sphere of the ethical concept of the state and
to start using the pluralistic system of the state system expressed in the definition of the
state as a public union. In fact, the researcher continues the study of the problem borne by
liberal ideology, dealing with the issues of civil society and its function of control over the
government. The state is a public union which unites different social, cultural, economic
unions of citizens that acts as a general coordinator of interallied relations.
V.V. Ivanovsky’s ideas have something in common with the basic program require-
ments of the FUP. His concept is especially interesting because of its thesis about the loss
of a territorial element of the state which has no basic value when one defines the state
as a social union. Authority is inherent not only to a territorial union but to any union.
Territorial independence is only the result of independence of authority which functions
in each state union, i.e., it becomes a consequence instead of a condition of existence of
the state union. It is possible to assume, that the formation of this position became the