Pecularities of the checks and balances system Between the branches of state power in Otto Eihelman’s draft of the UNR Constitution

Abstract

The article deals with the constitutional views of Otto Eihelman, a well-known Ukrainian lawyer, public and political figure and national liberation competitions ideologist of the XIX - beginning of the XX century. The mechanism of checks and balances in the system of organization of state power proposed by him in the draft of Constitution of the UNR is analyzed by considering its basic elements. It is emphasized that the system of state power must be based on the principles of federalism and popular sovereignty. The latter should be implemented through popular referendums. The basic components of the state power mechanism that Otto Eihelman proposes in his constitutional project of the UNR are investigated: Federal State Constituent Power of the UNR (owned by the people of the UNR and is implemented through referenda); supreme legislative body of the UNR (belongs to the Federal State Parliament, which consists of two chambers: the Land State Chamber and the Federal-State Council); executive power of the UNR (belongs to the Federal Head of the State, who was elected at a joint assembly of two chambers of Parliament and members of the Federal State Court, as well as the Council of Ministers of the UNR); judicial power of the UNR (belongs to the Federal State Court and the Court of Cassation); control power of the UNR (belongs to the Federal State Control). The basic elements of the system of checks and balances proposed by Otto Eihelman in the draft of UNR Constitution are analyzed: the duality of the government formation sources; removal of the head of state by the legislature, dissolution of parliament; institute of presidential veto. It is emphasized that Otto Eihelman’s primary role in ensuring the functioning of the checks and balances system has given the people sovereignty, combining forms of representative and direct democracy with the dominant role of the latter. Therefore, the people, through a referendum, as Otto Eihelman planned, were able to exercise effective control over the functioning of the state power of the UNR