Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk

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The Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk (Ukrainian: Конституція Пилипа Орлика, romanized: Konstytutsiia Pylypa Orlyka), formally titled as The Treaties and Resolutions of the Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporozhian Army (Latin: Pacta et Constitutiones legum libertatumque Exercitus Zaporoviensis, Ukrainian: Договори і Постановлення Прав і вольностей Війська Запорозького, romanized: Dohovory i Postanovlennia Prav i volʹnostei Viisʹka Zaporozʹkoho), is a constitutional document written by the Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host, Pylyp Orlyk,^[1] the Cossack elders and the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Army on the 5 April 1710 in the city of Bender (Tighina) in the Principality of Moldavia. It is sometimes called the First Constitution of Ukraine.^[2]

It established the principle of the separation of powers in government between the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches well before the publication of Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws. The document limited the executive authority of the hetman, and established a Cossack parliament called the General Council [uk] (General Rada).

The Old Ukrainian-language original, signed by Orlyk, accompanied by a diploma signed by King Charles XII of Sweden was found in 2008 by Ukrainian researchers in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts [ru], Moscow.^[3] The Latin-language original is kept in the National Archives of Sweden.