Legal status and local government of Kiev
Encyclopedia
Oblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
(province) in which it sits. That is, it is subordinated directly to the national-level branches of the Government of Ukraine
Government of Ukraine
Government of Ukraine is often associated with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. However it should be considered that Ukraine is a country under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government...
, skipping the provincial level authorities of Kiev Oblast
Kiev Oblast
Kyiv Oblast, sometimes written as Kiev Oblast is an oblast in central Ukraine.The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Kyiv , also being the capital of Ukraine...
. Additionally, the head of the local government (the mayor
Mayor of Kiev
Mayor of Kiev is the elected mayor of the municipality of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, who is also normally automatically appointed as Head of the City's State Administration and Chair of the City Council....
) is elected, rather than appointed, and the municipal government has greater latitude in local affairs that elsewhere in Ukraine. Traditionally the elected mayor also automatically became chair of Kiev City Council
Kiev City Council
Kiev City Council or Kyivrada is the city council of Kiev municipality, the highest representative body of the city community. The members of city council are directly elected by Kievans and the council is chaired by the Mayor of Kiev .The council meets in a 1950s City Council building...
and head of the city's state administration (i.e. head of government
Head of government
Head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...
). However, following dispute between the mayor and the president in 2010, President Yanukovych asked the parliament to give him the power to appoint the head of the state administration. Parliament acquiesced, and the mayor was dismissed from the state administration and replaced with a presidential appointee, though he remains the mayor. Effective power now rests with the appointee, not the mayor.
The unique standing of the city's institutions of self-governance reflects the role of Kiev as the capital
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and is also based on the city's historical administrative status within the
Subdivisions of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union had several kinds of subnational entities:* Republics of the Soviet Union* Autonomous republics of the Soviet Union* Oblasts of the Soviet Union* Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union* Autonomous okrugs of the Soviet Union...
Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
where Kiev held the position of a City of republican subordination
Republics of the Soviet Union
The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...
.
Currently, the legal status and the local government of Kiev is regulated by the special provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine
Constitution of Ukraine
The Constitution of Ukraine is the nation's fundamental law. The constitution was adopted and ratified at the 5th session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 28 June 1996. The constitution was passed with 315 ayes out of 450 votes possible .Other laws and other normative legal acts of Ukraine...
as well as a combination of Ukrainian laws, namely the Law on the capital of Ukraine - Hero City Kiev, the Law on the local state administration and the Law on local self-governance in Ukraine.
Legal status within the administrative subdivision of Ukraine
Kiev is a national-level subordinated municipalityMunicipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
(officially "the city with special status"), which means that the city is directly subordinated to national-level government
Government of Ukraine
Government of Ukraine is often associated with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. However it should be considered that Ukraine is a country under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government...
rather than to the provincial level authorities of Kiev Oblast
Kiev Oblast
Kyiv Oblast, sometimes written as Kiev Oblast is an oblast in central Ukraine.The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Kyiv , also being the capital of Ukraine...
, which surrounds the city.
Of only two special status municipalities of national-level subordination in Ukraine (the other being the city of Sevastopol
Sevastopol
Sevastopol is a city on rights of administrative division of Ukraine, located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimea peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 . Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa....
also administratively independent from the surrounding Autonomous Republic of Crimea) Kiev's status somewhat differs from the status of Sevastopol as the latter's scope of local government is narrower.
Kiev city itself is divided into administrative raion
Raion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...
s (districts), which have their own units of central and local government with jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
over a limited scope of affairs. Raions are the lowest level of the city's government although some of the raions include geographically distinct "villages" (e.g., surrounded by forest). As with other raions inside Ukrainian cities, Kiev City Council is deputed to define the jurisdiction of its raions' authorities. However, only Verkhovna Rada
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is Ukraine's parliament. The Verkhovna Rada is a unicameral parliament composed of 450 deputies, which is presided over by a chairman...
(the parliament) may create, or liquidate the raions, or change their administrative boundaries.
Local government
The popularly elected Kiev City CouncilKiev City Council
Kiev City Council or Kyivrada is the city council of Kiev municipality, the highest representative body of the city community. The members of city council are directly elected by Kievans and the council is chaired by the Mayor of Kiev .The council meets in a 1950s City Council building...
is the city-level legislative body of Kiev, with a broad scope of jurisdiction over the local issues. The council is chaired by the Mayor of Kiev
Mayor of Kiev
Mayor of Kiev is the elected mayor of the municipality of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, who is also normally automatically appointed as Head of the City's State Administration and Chair of the City Council....
, who is independently elected by a separate popular election.
Local representation of the central government of Ukraine
The President of UkrainePresident of Ukraine
Prior to the formation of the modern Ukrainian presidency, the previous Ukrainian head of state office was officially established in exile by Andriy Livytskyi. At first the de facto leader of nation was the president of the Central Rada at early years of the Ukrainian People's Republic, while the...
appoints the Head of the City State Administration. Traditionally, unlike other similar appointments in Ukraine, this appointment was purely formal, because the Constitutional Court of Ukraine
Constitutional Court of Ukraine
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine is the sole body of constitutional jurisdiction in Ukraine. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine interprets the Constitution of Ukraine and decides whether laws and other legal acts are constitutional....
ruled that the elected city Mayor
Mayor of Kiev
Mayor of Kiev is the elected mayor of the municipality of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, who is also normally automatically appointed as Head of the City's State Administration and Chair of the City Council....
was to be also appointed as the Head of the City State Administration. This provision is unique, as other similar appointments of the local administration chiefs throughout Ukraine are made by the agreement of the President and the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Ukraine
The Prime Minister of Ukraine is Ukraine's head of government presiding over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the Ukrainian government....
; only in Kiev, the Mayor or Council Chairperson may combine their elected position with the executive position in the local State Administration. However, this system was ended in 2010 when Parliament empowered the president to replace the mayor as head of the state administration which the person of the president's choosing.
The central executive power is also represented on the lowest raion
Raion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...
s level of city authority. There are State Administrations, Internal Affairs
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is the main body in the system of central bodies of exeecutive power that provides formation and realization of the state policy in the sphere of protection the rights and liberties of citizens, unlawful acts against the interest of society and state,...
(police) Department and other executive bodies in each of Kiev's raions.