Download Identification: UKR-2000-2-005

Identification: UKR-2000-2-005
a) Ukraine/ b) Constitutional Court of Ukraine / c) / d) 28.09.2000 / No. 10-pп/2000/ f)
Constitutionality of provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On State Housing Stock Privatisation”, Article
2.2 (State housing privatisation case) g) h).
Key words of systematic thesaurus:
Constitutional Justice - Holders of right for constitutional application (addressing) application from governmental authorities - Legislative authorities
Constitutional Justice - Subject of control - Law and other enactments
General Principles - Social state
Governmental Authorities - Legislative authorities - Powers
Key words of alphabetic index State stock privatisation / Right of property / Place of residence
Conclusions:
To declare as consistent with the Constitution of Ukraine (i.e., constitutional) provisions of
Article 2.2 of the Law of Ukraine “On State Housing Stock Privatisation”, dated June 19, 1992, as
amended under the Law of Ukraine On Introduction of Amendments and Supplementary
Provisions to the Law of Ukraine On State Housing Stock Privatisation, dated February 22, 1994, in
pursuance whereof the following shall not be privatised: apartments with a status of museum;
apartments (houses) located at territories of closed military settlements, enterprises,
establishments and organisations, nature and biosphere conservation areas, national parks,
botanical gardens, dendrological, zoological, regional and landscape parks, parks being
monuments of landscape architecture, historical and cultural conservation areas, conservation
areas with a status of museum; rooms in hostels; distressed apartments (houses) (where it is
impossible to provide safe dwelling conditions for people); apartments (rooms, houses) classified
as departmental in accordance with the established procedure, as well as apartments (houses)
located at the territory of unconditional (obligatory) resettlement area contaminated due to
Chornobyl accident.
Summary:
The holders of right for constitutional application, i.e., people’s deputies of Ukraine, state in
their constitutional application that keynote of this rule of the Law prohibits privatisation of housing
items located at territories of historical, cultural, nature and biosphere conservation areas, national
parks, etc., which is in contradiction to provisions set forth in Article 24.2 of the Constitution of
Ukraine, in pursuance whereof there should be no privileges or restrictions, in particular,
residential, to civic rights, and Article 41 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which excludes illegal
disappropriation and declares as inviolable the right of private property.
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine decides this controversy proceeding from the following
arguments:
National and local governmental authorities execute the right of property on behalf of
Ukrainian people within the limits determined by the Constitution of Ukraine. (Articles 13, 142,
143 of the Constitution of Ukraine).
In accordance with Articles 92.1.7 and 85.1.36 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the powers of
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine include determination of a legal regime of property through adoption
of a relevant law, and also include approval of the list of state-owned housing items that shall not
be privatised.
Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine guarantees equal constitutional rights and freedoms
to every citizen of Ukraine and declares equality in rights before the law for all the citizens.
Declaring equality of all the citizens before the law, thereby Article 24 establishes also equal
submission of all the citizens of Ukraine to the laws of Ukraine.
According to the tenor of Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the wording “place of
residence” implies a territorial entity (village, community, city or any other local territorial
subdivision) and not a specific dwelling of a citizen (house, apartment or departmental dwelling),
as the authors of the application allude. Therefore, inclusion of specific living accomodations to the
list of items that shall not be privatised in pursuance of the Law shall not be treated as a residential
restriction of human rights.
Inclusion of specific apartments (houses) of the state-owned housing stock to the list of
items that shall not be privatised may be caused by specific features of territories where such
housing items are located, or by specific features of such items of housing, by necessity to provide
citizens with safe dwelling conditions, by specific features related to protection of national cultural
values and areas of natural reserves, by temporary character of dwelling tenure, etc.
In view of the hereinbefore, determination of particular state-owned items of housing as
subjects of no privatisation by Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by the reason of their destination or
other circumstances related to specific character of their legal regime, which makes impossible
transfer of such dwellings into private property, shall not be treated as restriction of any human or
civic rights. Therewith, a lawgiver imposing inhibition on privatisation of the said state-owned
housing items envisages compensation-type guarantees for citizens living in such apartments
(houses).
Thus, provisions of Article 2.2. of the Law shall not be considered as residential restrictions of
human rights, but rather as restrictions applicable to separate specific items of state-owned
housing stock that cannot be transferred into private property of Ukrainian citizens.
Besides, citizens are not deprived of a right to solve this matter in accordance with
procedure provided by the Law, including application to the court of common law for protection
against violations of their right, if there arises a change in a legal status of housing items under
some or other circumstances, which makes available privatisation of such property.
Article 41 of the Constitution of Ukraine referred to by a holder of right for constitutional
application, deals with constitutional guarantees of already acquired right of property; therefore,
alleging of inconsistency of the contestable rule of law to the said provisions of the Constitution of
Ukraine is baseless.
Language:
Ukrainian