Commission for the Study of the History of Western-Ruthenian and Ukrainian Law at the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (Комісія для виучування істірії західно-руського та українського права ВУАН; Komisiia dlia vyuchuvannia istorii zakhidno-ruskoho ta ukrainskoho prava VUAN). Commission established in 1919 in the socioeconomic division of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. It became active in 1920 after Mykola Vasylenko was elected its chairman and editor of the commission’s publications. Its secretaries were Viktor Novytsky, Serhii Ivanytsky-Vasylenko, Lev Okinshevych, and Vasyl T. Hryshko. Among its members were Yoanykii Malynovsky, Mykhailo Slabchenko, Viktor Barvinsky, Ivan Kamanin, Irynarkh Cherkasky, Viktor Romanovsky, and Mykola Maksymeiko. The commission published seven volumes of Pratsi (1925–30), which included longer studies—Okinshevych’s ‘Tsentral'ni ustanovy Ukraïny-Het'manshchyny XVII–XVIII st.’ (The Central Institutions of Hetman Ukraine in the 17th-18th Century) and Irynarkh Cherkasky’s ‘Hromads'kyi (kopnyi) sud na Ukraïni-Rusi XVI–XVIII vv.’ (Community Courts in Ukraine-Rus' in the 16th–18th Century)—and Materiialy do istoriï ukraïns'koho prava (Materials on the History of Ukrainian Law, 1929) by Mykola Vasylenko. The preparation of Slovnyk ukraïns'koï iurydychnoï starovyny (Dictionary of Ukrainian Juridical Antiquity), which was begun in 1919 under the direction of Cherkasky, was suspended in the 1930s, and the large collection of materials perished. The commission was abolished in 1933 during the reorganization of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, which succeeded the Stalinist purge of its members.

Yaroslav Padokh

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]