Legal transformations of business disputes in post-soviet Ukraine

This paper explores mobilisation of law by Ukrainian business people at the pre-litigation stage of disputes, when litigation has not as yet been commenced but a legal claim has been formalised through the pretenziya - a formal letter to the delinquent party written to a special template. In Soviet times the pretenziya was by law an obligatory prerequisite before filing a claim in a commercial court (arbitrazh), but nowadays it is optional. Having analysed the spectrum of legal and extra-legal functions of pretenziya, this paper concludes that due to its adaptability, pretenziya proved capable of operating both as a token of the public order – the ‘shadow of the law’ - and as part of a private contract enforcement. Pretenziya in a voluntary form has not only survived in market-oriented economy but even opened up new avenues for the creative use of legal forms in post-Soviet business.