Legal press
Legal press. Periodicals devoted to issues of law and of the legal profession, including the official gazettes of legislatures and reports of the courts.
Gazettes. The earliest gazettes of laws valid in Ukrainian territories were published in Vienna by the Austrian government and were entitled Allgemeines Reichs-, Gesetz- und Regierungsblatt für das Kaiserthum Österreich (1848–52), Reichsgesetzblatt für Kaiserthum Österreich (1853–69), and Reichsgesetzblatt für die im Reichsrathe vereinten Königreiche und Länder (1870–1918). These gazettes were translated into all the languages of the Austrian Empire. In Ukrainian they came out as Obshchii zakonov derzhavnykh i pravytel'stva Vistnyk dlia tsisarstva Avstrii (1849–53), then as Vistnyk zakonov derzhavnykh i pravytel'stva (1854–8), and finally as Vistnyk zakonov derzhavnykh dlia korolevstv i kraev v derzhavnoi dumi zastuplenykh (1872–95) and Vistnyk zakoniv derzhavnykh dlia korolivstv i kraïv, zastuplenykh v Derzhavnii Radi (1896–1916). Austria’s provincial governments published their own gazettes: in Galicia Provinzialgesetzsammlung des Königreichs Galizien und Lodomerien (1819–48) was followed by Allgemeines Landes-Gesets- und Regierungs-Blatt für das Kronland Galizien und Lodomerien mit den Herzogthümern Auschwitz und Zator und dem Grossherzogthume Krakau, which was translated into Ukrainian as Vseobshchii dnevnyk zemskykh zakonov i pravytel'stva dlia koronnoi oblasty Halytsii i Volodymerii s kniazhestvom Osvitsymskym i Zatorskym i velykym kniazhestvom Krakovskym (1851–2), and then by Landes-Regierungsblatt für das Kronland Galizien und Lodomerien mit den Herzogthümern Auschwitz und Zator und dem Grossherzogthume Krakau (1853–1914), which appeared also in Ukrainian as Vistnyk kraievoho pravytel'stva dlia koronnoi oblasty Halytsii ... For a time, the separate vicegerency in eastern (Ukrainian) Galicia issued Landes-Regierungsblatt für das Verwaltungsgebiet der Statthalterei in Lemberg (1854–9), which came out in Ukrainian under different titles as Vistnyk kraevoho pravytel'stva dlia upravytel’stvennoi oblasty namistnychestva v L'vovi (1854–7) and Vistnyk riadu kraevoho dlia oblasty administratsiinoi Namistnytstva vo L'vovi (1858–9). For Bukovyna, Allgemeines Landes-Gesetz- und Regierungsblatt für das Kronland Bukowina (1850–1914) was published in Chernivtsi and translated under the title Obshchii zakonov kraevykh i pravytel'stva Vistnyk dlia korunnoho kraiu Bukovyny. In the 1850s the gazette Landesgesetz- und Regierungsblatt für Kronland Ungarn was published as Zemskii pravytel'stvennyi Vistnyk dlia korolevstva Uhorshchyny for the Ukrainian population in the Hungarian crownlands.
In Russian-ruled Ukraine there was no legal gazette before 1917. New laws were published in the official gubernia newspapers (gubernskie vedomosti), which were established in the Ukrainian gubernias in the 1860s.
During the struggle for independence (1917–20), every Ukrainian government issued a regular legal gazette. The Central Rada published Vistnyk Heneral’noho Sekretariiatu Ukraïny (1917–8) and Vistnyk Rady Narodnikh Ministriv Ukraïns’koï Narodn’oï Respubliky (1918). Derzhavnyi vistnyk (1918) came out under the Hetman government. Under the Directory of the Ukrainian National Republic, Vistnyk Ukraïns’koï Narodn’oï Respubliky (1918–19) was changed to Vistnyk derzhavnykh zakoniv (1919–20). The government of the Western Ukrainian National Republic published Zbirnyk zakoniv, rozporiadkiv, ta obizhnykiv proholoshenykh Derzhavnym Sekretariiatom Zakhidnoï Ukraïns'koï Narodnoï Respublyky (1918) and then Vistnyk derzhavnykh zakoniv i rozporiadkiv Zakhidnoï Oblasty Ukraïns'koï Narodnoï Respublyky (1919). In addition, many ministries issued their own gazettes, usually entitled Vistnyk or Visty.
In the interwar period, a Ukrainian-language legal gazette was published only in Transcarpathia within Czechoslovakia. It was called Uriadova hazeta Zems'koho Uriadu dlia Pidkarpatorus'koï Rusy (1919–28) and then Zems'kyi vistnyk (1928–38). The gazette of autonomous Carpatho-Ukraine was Uriadovyi vistnyk Pravytel'stva Pidkarpats'koï Rusy (1938), which was renamed Uriadovyi vistnyk Pravytel'stva Karpats'koï Ukraïny (1939). Laws for Polish- and Romanian-ruled Ukrainian territories appeared only in Polish or Romanian gazettes.
The first Soviet government in Ukraine issued its gazette in both Ukrainian and Russian, under the same title as the gazette of the more popular government of the Ukrainian National Republic, Vistnyk Ukraïns'koï Narodn'oï Respubliky (December 1917–March 1918). Then the regime published the bilingual Zbirnyk uzakonen' i rozporiadzhen' Robitnycho-selians'koho uriadu Ukraïny (1919–29, from 1929 as Zbirnyk zakoniv ...) and the newspaper Visti VUTsVK (1921–41). In Moscow the gazette of the all-Union government was also issued in Ukrainian. From 1941 the official publication of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR was the bilingual Vidomosti Verkhovnoï Rady Ukraïns'koï Radians'koï Sotsialistychnoï Respubliky. The gazette of the USSR Supreme Soviet was published in the languages of the republics, including Ukrainian, but from 1960 it appeared only in Russian. In the 1920s and 1930s some laws and official pronouncements were published in journals of the People's Commissariat of Justice and various court bulletins. Most of these publications appeared in both Ukrainian and Russian. Various people’s commissariats and executive committees published their own bulletins and official magazines. Some decrees and instructions of the ministries were published in national newspapers, such as the daily Radians’ka Ukraïna (Kyiv) and Izvestiia (Moscow), and oblast or city newspapers run by the Communist Party or by the soviets.
Journals. The first professional law journals published in Ukrainian were Chasopys’ pravnycha (1889–99), Chasopys’ pravnycha i ekonomichna (1900–12), and Pravnychyi vistnyk (1910–13) in Lviv. Within the Russian Empire there were no Ukrainian-language legal periodicals. Ukrainian jurists published in Russian journals, such as Zhurnal Iuridicheskogo obshchestva, Iuridicheskii vestnik, and Vestnik prava. During the period of Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20) the monthly Zakon i pravo (1918) appeared briefly in Kyiv.
In the interwar period, Zhyttia i pravo (1928–39) appeared quarterly in Lviv, and the popular monthly Pravni porady (1933) came out briefly in Kolomyia. In addition, Western Ukrainian newspapers often carried articles on theoretical and practical legal issues. In Soviet Ukraine the journal Vestnik sovetskoi iustitsii na Ukraine (1922–9) was published in Russian until it was renamed (1929–30) Visnyk radians’koï iustytsiï. At the same time the People's Commissariat of Justice issued Chervone pravo (1926–31). The last two journals were replaced in 1931 by Revoliutsiine pravo. After the Second World War no Ukrainian legal journal was published in the USSR for many years, and Ukrainian jurists had to publish their works in various Russian periodicals, such as Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo and Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost'. It was only in 1958 that Radians’ke pravo was established as the organ of the Ministry of Justice, the procuracy and the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR, and the Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.
Outside Ukraine, the Association of Ukrainian Lawyers in New York published irregularly the professional journal Pravnychyi visnyk (4 vols, 1955–79).
Andrii Bilynsky, Vasyl Markus
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]