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opportunity at their discretion to resolve issues of local importance,
regardless of feudal lords’ will. Magdeburg Law was applied in many
cities of medieval Europe. In Ukraine, for the first time, the
Magdeburg Law was acquired by the city of Sianka in Lviv in 1339.

The "Mirror of Saxony" by M. Yasker (1536), "Articles of
Magdeburg Law" by J. Kirshtein (1557), "The Procedure of Civil
Magdeburg Law" by V. Troitskyi (1559) and "The Civil Law of

Chelm" (1584) were the most widespread collections of Magdeburg
Law in Ukraine. Russian Emperor Nicholas I in 1831 abolished by his
decree the Magdeburg Law in all of Ukraine, except for Kyiv, and by
his decree of 1835 he also canceled it in Kyiv.

The "March Articles" by Bohdan Khmelnytskyi in 1654 are the
most famous monument of the Ukrainian legal thought of the XVII
century. Ukraine in the struggle for independence from Poland made

an alliance with the Russian tsar. The March Articles provided
Ukraine with autonomy in its administration and justice, in relations
with foreign states, except Poland and Turkey, and in the collection of

taxes. The Ukrainian Hetman also had the right for a 60-thousand
Cossack army.
Hetman Ivan Brukhovetskyi, Yurii Khmelnytskyi and Ivan

Samoilovych significantly limited the autonomy of Ukraine because
of the treaties with Russia. After the defeat of hetman Ivan Mazepa,
his successor Pylyp Orlyk, while in exile, in co-authorship with
Cossack leaders Hryhorii Hertsyk and Andrii Voinarovskyi, created

the first draft of the Constitution of Ukraine (1710). It was called the
"The Pacts and the Constitution of the Laws and Liberties of the
Zaporozhian Army" and consisted of a preamble (preface) and 16

paragraphs. The document affirmed the state sovereignty of Ukraine
and Orthodoxy as a dominant religion. According to the form of
government, Ukraine had to become an elected constitutional
monarchy, headed by a hetman. Legislative power was to belong to

the Cossack Council. A great innovation for that time was
consolidated independence of judiciary.
The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk did not come into force, but had

a significant impact on the development of both domestic and foreign
laws, in particular, during the drafting of the US Constitution in 1787
In 1743, during the days of hetman Danylo Apostol, a collection

entitled "The Laws by which the Little Russian People are Judged"

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