OSCE Project Co-ordinator promotes legal education reform in Ukraine

LVIV, Ukraine, 20 October 2011 – Reform of Ukraine’s legal education system is a focus of a four-day OSCE-supported conference that started in Lviv today.

The event organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU), National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla academy” and Ivan Franko National University in Lviv brings together academics and prominent legal experts who will present the findings of comparative studies of core legal courses carried out in Ukraine and internationally, and discuss ways to improve legal education in the country.

“Good quality legal education is vital for a functioning democratic society,” said Ambassador Lubomir Kopaj, the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine. “Future effectiveness of Ukrainian legislation and justice directly depends on today’s approaches to legal education. We support reforms in this sphere, including through holding events for the academic community and students.”

The conference participants will discuss the development of model syllabuses in line with current international education trends for such courses as Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Process, Human Rights, Administrative Law and Administrative Justice and Legal Theory.

Andriy Boyko, the Dean of the Law Faculty of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, said: “One of the legal maxims states ‘Non progredi est regredi’, that is ‘To not go forward is to go backward’.  Legal education has to evolve together with the society, and today’s event will help us define how to best ensure it.”

The event is a part of a project to support the improvement of legal education in Ukraine, a sphere in which the PCU has assisted Ukraine since 2004.