Civil Code of the Ukrainian SSR

Civil Code of the Ukrainian SSR (Цивільний кодекс УРСР; Tsyvilnyi kodeks URSR). Systematic source of civil law in Soviet Ukraine, which regulated property and non-property relations between individuals. The first civil code was enacted by the All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee on 16 December 1922 (effective 1 February 1923) and followed the principles of the Civil Code of the RSFSR of 1922. The revised civil code was enacted by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR on 18 July 1963 (effective 1 January 1964, with later amendments). Pursuant to the provisions of the USSR constitution, the Civil Code of the Ukrainian SSR was based fundamentally on the ‘Foundations of Civil Legislation of the USSR and the Constituent Republics,’ enacted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 8 December 1961. The civil code had 8 sections, divided into 42 chapters that contained 572 articles altogether. Section I stated the objectives of the code and the legal status of citizens and juridical persons; it also dealt with contracts, limitation of actions, and so on. Section II covered property rights (state property, co-operative and collective-farm property, public and private property) and their protection. Section III dealt with the right, guarantee, and types of obligations. Section IV takes up authors’ rights. Section V dealt with rights to discoveries, section VI with rights to inventions, section VII with inheritance, and section VIII with the status and legal rights of foreign citizens and stateless persons, and with the application of foreign laws and international covenants. (See also Civil law.)

Yurii Starosolsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]