Three years under martial law - KIU fellow Prof Dr Viktor Muraviov investigates restrictions on fundamental rights in Ukraine
24 February 2025 marks the third anniversary of Russia's attack on Ukraine. For the past three years, Ukrainians have not only been at war, but also living under martial law. During his KIU fellowship at Viadrina, Ukrainian law professor Prof Dr Viktor Muraviov is investigating how this restricts the fundamental rights of the population and whether the rule of law can still be upheld.
For three years, Ukrainians have only been able to move freely to a limited extent; they are monitored by the state when they surf the internet; there are strict border controls, television images are censored, political parties are banned, companies have to manufacture war material instead of their actual products; there are curfews and men fit for military service are conscripted. These measures are based on martial law, which has been in force in Ukraine since February 2022. Despite all these restrictions on everyday life, Prof Dr Viktor Muraviov says: "Even if it's not pleasant - all this is happening in accordance with the law. Human rights are not under threat." This is Muraviov's research result after three months in which he studied the effects of martial law on the rule of law in his home country as part of a fellowship from the Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies (KIU) at Viadrina.
For him, it is crucial that all restrictions take place within the framework of the rule of law. For example, the party bans were not a presidential decision and would stand up to constitutional scrutiny. Even after three years under martial law, the Ukrainian population's attitude towards this situation has not changed, Muraviov observes: "People understand that it would be even more difficult to win the war without these measures." He also does not lose his firm belief that Ukraine will return to democratic freedoms after the war due to the long duration of the state of emergency.
For his research, Muraviov conducted interviews with Ukrainian decision-makers from politics and the judiciary as well as civil society actors, carried out case studies and studied legal literature. His conclusion: "By introducing constitutional restrictions on human rights, Ukraine is endeavouring to maintain the balance between national security and the protection of human rights."
The KIU fellowship helped him, above all through personal contact with colleagues, access to the Viadrina library and support from the KIU team. However, the three months of support were too short for his project. This is another reason why Muraviov would like to remain connected to the Viadrina and the topic he started here beyond the duration of the fellowship. He is currently in talks with Viadrina international law expert Prof Dr Carmen Thiele about a possible collaboration.
While Muraviov conducts research with other fellowship holders from Ukraine in Frankfurt (Oder) and Berlin, his everyday life as a Ukrainian law professor continues in parallel. For 18 years, he has held two chairs at Taras Shevchenko University in Kyiv, the university where he himself studied. His area of expertise is the rule of law and comparative organisational law, which he also teaches his students during the war years - currently exclusively online. "The war has hardly changed my professional life; I have always travelled abroad a lot, as I do now, and I also teach the same courses at the university," he says. However, he is now tired of travelling between Germany, Ukraine and Poland. He had already moved to Germany before the KIU scholarship for a two-year project at the University of Regensburg; his family currently lives in Poznań and he regularly attends to private and professional matters in Kyiv. He does not perceive the war as a threat even when he is in Kyiv. "I don't know why, but I'm not afraid. I can sleep well even when there are rocket alarms," he says. Life just goes on, he says.
Frauke Adesiyan
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