Name and Surname
Olha Nykorak
Affiliation
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
Contact email
olha.nykorak@gmail.com
Short Biography
Olha Nykorak combines being a research fellow in the sphere of constitutional law at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and coordination of educational projects as a project and program manager at the Ukrainian Catholic University. Previously Olha conducted research in Eastern European studies at the University of Warsaw as a visiting scholar, studied international public law at the University of Tartu and conducted research at the University of Graz. She obtained her analytical skills and experience in policy design as a legal and policy advisor to a member of the Ukrainian parliament and conducting analytical reports and massive online courses in think tanks. Olha is an alumna of the Policy Designers Network and ReThink.CEE program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a graduate of the Polish and European Law School of the Jagiellonian University, and a European Forum Alpbach scholarship holder. Her research interests include constitutional identity, abuse of law through distorted legal narratives, European constitutional values, transnational constitutional law based on shared values, and interrelation between national and supranational law.
Research abstract
In the research, the concept of “identity” is going to be characterized from the point of view of philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Based on these various approaches, general traits of identity as a social collective concept will be distinguished.
The notion of constitutional identity has been frequently used for purposes of both European and internal law. Nonetheless, considering the examples of newly-formed or reevaluated constitutional identities in Ukraine and Balkan states it is necessary to reconsider its understanding not only in the context of protecting domestic law from the supranational rules, but also as the nature of the constituent power of the people which can consolidate the nation and support national security. In order to research the genesis of the constitutional identity concept, its history of origin and functions will be compared.
Universal constitutional values such as human dignity, justice, democracy, and the rule of law constitute integrating features of identity while distinguishing features are defined by national constitutional values. Among them, the most characteristic are the constitutional status of state (or official) language, constitutional preference of secularism or secularity, constitutional approach to national security, and external geopolitical orientations and forms of manifestation of national identity. All of these features will be thoroughly characterized in the research based on examples of South Eastern, Eastern and Central Europe.
The history of the creation of the constitutions of the world demonstrates: the urge for unity as the essence of the constitutional identity at the initial stage arose because of threats (it is particularly relevant for Ukraine right now). Three main values were protected foremost by the constitutions: life, security and property. In Ukraine, as a European Union candidate, constitutional identity is also changing, primarily because of harmonization of legislation with the acquis communautaire. The formation of constitutional identity can be divided into three stages: before 2014 (the Revolution of Dignity), 2014-2022, and after the 24 th of February, 2022. By 2014, the priority task was to deprive the Soviet legacy. However, in 2014, the emphasis shifted: the most important thing was to develop its own model of constitutional identity, which, moreover, confirms the aspiration for European integration.
The full-fledged war proved that Ukrainian consolidation is primarily based on constitutional values, above all – dignity and freedom. Even though cultural, religious, and linguistic borders seemed blurry, a constitutional basis is supposed to unite the nation from Lviv to Kharkiv and
Kyiv to Mariupol. Thus, this research is aimed at figuring out the role of the constitutional identity of Ukrainians on territorial integrity and security and vice versa.