What Is “The People of Ukraine”? Ministry of Justice Confirms Preamble Has No Legal Force

The document presented above is an official response from the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, which explains the legal nature of the preamble as a component of a normative legal act. The letter states that the preamble does not contain legal norms, does not have independent legal force, and cannot be regarded as a norm of direct effect.

The preamble is the introductory part of any law or constitution. It outlines general goals, historical context, motives, and value orientations on which the act is based. However, from a legal standpoint, the preamble does not contain enforceable legal norms. In contrast to the articles of a law, the preamble does not establish legal obligations, does not create rights, and cannot serve as a basis for court decisions or actions by state authorities.

The Ministry of Justice explicitly emphasizes that the preamble cannot carry legal norms, is not a source of direct legal effect, and does not have independent legal force.

What does this mean in practice?

In the Constitution of Ukraine, the preamble is the only place where the phrase “the people of Ukraine — the citizens of Ukraine of all nationalities” is mentioned. However, since this is stated in the declarative, non-binding part of the Constitution, it does not provide a legal basis for officially defining who exactly constitutes “the people of Ukraine.” In other words, it is legally impossible to affirm that the people of Ukraine are simply the totality of all citizens, because this is not a definition, but rather a slogan, a declaration, or a political message.

Thus:

• the preamble cannot be used as a legal basis for establishing norms or statuses;

• the concept of “the Ukrainian people” has no clear legal definition;

• any reference to the preamble as if it were a legal norm constitutes a legal distortion.

This official response in fact documents the absence of collective subjectivity — it once again confirms that ethnic Ukrainians do not possess formalized subjectivity as a people, since they are not recognized as a people in any legally binding document, unlike indigenous peoples and national minorities, who are explicitly established in legislation as holders of collective rights.

It should also be noted that the position expressed in the Ministry of Justice’s letter is consistent not only with general principles of legal theory, but is also reflected in the current legislation of Ukraine.

In particular, Article 38 of the Law of Ukraine “On Law-Making Activity” No. 3354-IX explicitly states that a preamble does not contain legal norms and has no legal force. This means that any formulations found in the preamble of the Constitution — including the phrase “the people of Ukraine are the citizens of Ukraine of all nationalities” — cannot be treated as legally binding or as giving rise to legal consequences.

It is indicative that, according to Paragraph 1 of Section XIV “Final Provisions” of the Law of Ukraine No. 3354-IX “On Law-Making Activity,” this law enters into force one year after the termination or cancellation of martial law introduced by Presidential Decree No. 64/2022 and approved by Law No. 2102-IX.

Such wording effectively creates a mechanism to bypass Article 157 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which prohibits any amendments to the Basic Law under conditions of martial or state of emergency.

As a result, the provision stating that the preamble “does not contain norms of law” acquires constitutional significance, transforming the very nature of the preamble and excluding it from the system of sources of law. The law has been adopted, signed, and is already being amended by subsequent acts (in particular, Law No. 3915-IX of 21 August 2024), yet it remains in a state of legal “pause,” which makes constitutional review impossible.

Thus, both at the level of official interpretation and within the framework of active legislation, it is clearly confirmed that the preamble cannot be used as a legal source for determining the composition of the people, the bearer of sovereignty, or the holder of collective rights.