OSCE promotes improvement of legal education in Ukraine

KYIV, 14 November 2013 – Representatives of academia and professional community gathered to discuss the quality of legal education and science in Ukraine and ways of improving it at an OSCE-supported conference that started in Kyiv today.

The three-day event was organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU) in partnership with the Education and Science Ministry of Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ivan Franko National University in Lviv and Ukrainian Legal Foundation. Participants will develop recommendations on the content, teaching methods of legal curriculum and ways of ensuring high quality of education. They are also expected to agree on the establishment of a working group tasked to shape a national standard of legal education in the country.

“High level of education should be a prerequisite for becoming a legal professional,” said Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine. “Legal and human rights education plays an essential role in the prevention of human rights violations. We support reforms in this sphere, including through the facilitation of a nation-wide discussion within the legal academic community on improving legal education in Ukraine and through holding capacity-building events for scholars and students.”

The conference agenda also includes the discussion of the content of model syllabuses and manuals for such courses as Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Process, Human Rights, Administrative Law and Administrative Justice, Legal Theory, Philosophy of Law, Legal Ethics and Legal Analysis and Writing, to ensure their consistency with current legal profession requirements.

Andriy Boyko, the Dean of the Law Faculty of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, said: “We, the members of legal academic community are the ones responsible for the state of legal education in Ukraine. We should keep in mind that society expects us to prepare highly qualified lawyers accountable to the society, loyal to their profession and honest with themselves.”

The event is part of activities aimed at strengthening legal education and promoting human rights education in Ukraine; the PCU has been providing assistance in this sphere since 2004.