Usenko Ihor Borysovych

Leading Researcher of the Department of History of State and Law of Ukraine, Candidate of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, Laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in the Field of Science and Technology

born April 4, 1957

+380 44 278 48 97

USENKO Ihor Borysovych — historian of law, state, legal science and education, leading researcher at the Department of History of State and Law of Ukraine, Candidate of Law (1986), Professor (2007), Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in the field of science and technology, laureate of the Vasylenko Mykola Prokopovych Prize (1992), laureate of the Yaroslav Mudryi Prize of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2005).

He graduated with a gold medal from Secondary School No. 117 named after Lesya Ukrainka in Kyiv (1974), with honors from the Law Faculty of Kyiv State University named after T. G. Shevchenko (now Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University) (1982), postgraduate study at the Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1985). He worked as an electrical technician and radio mechanic at the Kyiv Higher Military Aviation Engineering School (1974-1975); service in the Armed Forces of the USSR (1975-1977).

At the Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (now the V. M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine) since 1985: junior researcher, researcher (since 1987), senior researcher (since 1990), head of the department of historical and political research of the state and law of Ukraine (since 1997), head of the department of historical and legal research (since 2003), leading researcher of the department of history of the state and law of Ukraine (since 2025).

At the same time, part-time: professor of the National Academy of the Security Service of Ukraine (1992-2017), head of the department of Kyiv University of Law (1997-2009), teacher of law at Kyiv Gymnasium No. 117 (1991-2004), professor at the Donetsk Institute of Internal Affairs (2001-2004), head of the law section of the Kyiv Small Academy of Sciences of Student Youth (2011-2013), editor-consultant of the publishing house Naukova Dumka (Scientific Thought) (2007-2009).

Scientific research: history of the state and law of Ukraine, history of Ukrainian legal science, legal biography, problems of legislative technique and Ukrainian legal terminology, legal regime of the use of languages ​​in Ukraine, legal problems of archival affairs, access to information and activities of special services, scientific and methodological support of legal education of schoolchildren.

Defended his PhD thesis («Historical experience of codification of Soviet legislation in the 20th century (based on materials of the Ukrainian SSR)») (1986).

Main works. Author of over 1000 scientific and educational and methodological works, including over 30 individual and collective monographs, textbooks, teaching aids, archeographic publications, etc. In particular, individual: «First codification of the legislation of the Ukrainian SSR» (K., 1989), «Ukraine during the NEP years: the fate of the course on revolutionary legality» (Kh., 1995), «Bolshevik government of Ukraine. 1917-1924» (1995, co-authored), «Legal biography: problems of the formation of a new direction of scientific research» (K., 2002), «History of the state and law of Ukraine: a teaching aid for correspondence students» (2014, co-authored); collective: «Mykola Prokopovich Vasylenko» (K., 1991); «Legal Science and Education in Ukraine» (K., 1992); «Legal Status of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (History and Present)» (K., 1993), «Academic Legal Opinion» (K., 1998), «Human Rights. Methodological Recommendations for Teachers of General Schools, Gymnasiums and Lyceums» (K., 1996), «Fundamentals of Law» (K., 1997), «Academic Legal Opinion» (K., 1998), «Institute of State and Law named after V. M. Koretsky of the NAS of Ukraine. 1949-1999» (Kyiv, 1999), «Legal ideology and law of Ukraine at the stage of formation of the totalitarian regime. 1929-1941» (Kyiv, 2001), «Legal custom as a source of Ukrainian law of the 9th-19th centuries» (Kyiv, 2006), «Vasylenko Mykola Prokopovych. Selected works in three volumes» (2006-2008), «Flagman of Ukrainian legal science / To the 60th anniversary of the V. M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the NAS of Ukraine. 1949-2009» (K., 2009), «Judicial Power in Ukraine: Historical Origins, Patterns, and Peculiarities of Development» (K., 2014), «Academician Borys Musiyovych Babiy: To the 100th Anniversary of His Birth» (K., 2016), «National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: Legal Principles of Organization and Activity to the 100th Anniversary of the Establishment of the NAS of Ukraine», «Legal Elite of Ukraine» (both — K., 2018).&nbsp.

Freelance scientific consultant to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense (1991-2014). Member of a number of commissions, scientific advisory, scientific and methodological and expert councils under state bodies and institutions, in particular the Ukrainian Commission on Legal Terminology under the President of Ukraine (1995-2000), the scientific and advisory council of the Commission on the Restoration of Outstanding Monuments of History and Culture under the President of Ukraine (1999-2001), the supervisory board of the Kyiv-Pechersk National Historical and Cultural Reserve (1997-2003), the Commission on Compliance with the Law of Ukraine "On Condemnation of Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regimes in Ukraine and the Prohibition of Propaganda of Their Symbols" at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (2015-2023), the Expert Commission on Civic Education and Law of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (from 2022), etc.

Member of the editorial boards of professional publications of the V. M. Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the NAS of Ukraine "Rule of Law", "State and Law", "Journal of the Kyiv University of Law", "Almanac of Law"; Deputy Chairman of the editorial board of the professional publication "Historical and Legal Journal" (Lutsk), Chairman of the Editorial Board of Scientific Collections of the International Association of Legal Historians.

He worked as part of working groups on linguistic and terminological editing of the Constitution of Ukraine and on the development of drafts of the Fundamentals of Ukrainian Legislation on Health Care, the Laws of Ukraine “On the Security Service of Ukraine”, “On State Secrets”, “On the National Archival Fund and Archival Institutions”, etc. (more than 20 draft laws), carried out scientific and legal expertise of about 70 more draft laws. Participant in many encyclopedic projects: “Small Encyclopedia of Ethno-State Studies” (K., 1996), “Ukrainian State Formation: Unclaimed Potential” (K., 1997), “Legal Encyclopedia” (1998-2004), «Anthology of Ukrainian Legal Thought» (2002-2005), «Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine» (2003-2013), «Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine» (from 2001), Great Ukrainian Legal Encyclopedia (from 2016), Great Ukrainian Encyclopedia (from 2018), etc. He has prepared 21 candidates of legal sciences, of whom O. F. Melnychuk, V. T. Okipnyuk and L. V. Mikhnevich later became doctors of sciences.

Awards: Order of Merit» III degree (2017), Honorary Diploma of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (2004), Honorary Diploma of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (2019), Award of the NAS of Ukraine "For the preparation of scientific change" (2022), Badge of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine "Vasyl Sukhomlynsky" (2005). Awarded the title of "Honorary Master of Law of the Center for Legal Studies of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and the Ukrainian Law Foundation" (1996).