PECULIARITIES OF ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE EXEMPLARY AGREEMENT IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the stages of formation and development of the construction of a model contract on Ukrainian lands. There are six periods of formation of the concept of model contracts in Ukraine, which are characterized by certain features due to the specifics of a particular historical period and legislative approaches to the legal regulation of contractual relations. The period of development of contract law during the existence of Kyivan Rus’ and the Galicia- Volyn principality (IX–XIV centuries) is associated with the adoption of the oldest document of national law-making, Rus’ka Pravda, which, although established formal guidelines for the conclusion of contracts of civil law, but did not contain legal requirements for the need to comply with their written form. The period of development of domestic contract law during the stay of Ukrainian lands in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was characterized by a departure from the oral form of contracts and the consolidation of written requirements for certain types of contract structures, including exemplary (typical) formulas, which allows to talk about the concept of model contract in domestic civil law. The period of development of contract law in the Hetmanate was characterized by written contracts, as well as the need for future counterparties to implement the established formulas for their agreements to enter into force, which indicates the further development of the concept of exemplary contracts. The period of development of contract law during the stay of Ukrainian lands in the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian empires is associated primarily with the adoption and enactment of the Civil Code of Eastern Galicia in 1797. It was characterized by tendencies to move away from the formalization of the process of concluding contracts and the adoption of the principle of pacta sunt servanda, which eliminated the dependence of the civil obligation on a particular form of contract. In addition, the Code for the first time in the Ukrainian lands declared the principle of freedom of contract, which indicates a weakening of the concept of exemplary civil contracts. The period of development of contract law during Ukraine’s membership in the Soviet Union was characterized by the introduction of administrative-command methods of management and total state intervention in the private sphere. None of the codified acts of civil law – neither the Civil Code of the USSR 1922 nor the Civil Code of the USSR 1963 – declared the principle of freedom of contract, but each of them provided for the need to comply with the written form for many civil law structures. In addition, for the first time at the legislative level the models of exemplary contracts have found their consolidation, given that there is every reason to believe that in the Soviet period a modern understanding of the concept of model (exemplary) contract was formed as a document of recommendation approved by the competent authorities to apply it for concluding a civil contract in a particular area of legal relations. The period of development of contract law after entry into force of the Civil Code of Ukraine and the Commercial Code of Ukraine in 2004 is characterized by the construction of private legal relations on the basis of legal equality, free will, property independence of their participants. The principle of freedom of contract enshrined in the norms of the Civil Code of Ukraine ensured that individuals and legal entities express their freedom of will as freely as possible when entering into contractual legal relations, choosing a contractor and forming the content of the contract. Meanwhile, the concept of exemplary agreements not only hasn’t lost its relevance, but also is reflected in the provisions of codified acts aimed at streamlining civil relations.