The Law Institute is a structural unit of the Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman, established to fulfill the educational and research tasks of higher legal education of Ukraine.
The Law Institute is not only a place for training up-to-date professionals - highly qualified lawyers (since our institute offers knowledge at the intersection of economics and law, significantly broadening employment opportunities for graduates), but also an institution where the nation’s elite is shaped and modern legal science is developed.
In the distant past, at the former Kyiv Institute of National Economy, legal education was initiated with the establishment of a legal department as part of Social-Economic Faculty (headed by Professor V.I. Synaiskyi). Later, in June 1921, based on this one, the Faculty of Social and Legal Studies (Law) was created, with the following departments: Judicial, Administrative, Labor Safety and Social Security as well as Sociology. The first dean of the Law Faculty was Professor V.I. Boshko. Prominent legal scientist have been working at the faculty, including Professors R.N. Babun, M.O. Bebutov-Cheltsov, O.M. Huliaiev, Y.I. Kelman, A.K. Mitiukov, M.I. Mitilino, M.M. Pashe-Ozerskyi, M.M. Tavtolis, V.T. Yanovskyi.
Since 1927 the main task of the Law Faculty has been to train legal advisers for enterprises, organisations and institutions. It functioned only until October 1930, when the Law Faculty was reinstated at Kyiv University and a significant number of lecturers from Kyiv Institute of National Economy (KINE) went to work there.
In the post-war years legal education in Ukraine was primarily provided at the Law Faculties of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv University, Ivan Franko Lviv University, I.I. Mechnikov Odessa University, Donetsk University, and Kharkiv Law Institute named after F. Dzerzhynskyi, which was later renamed to the Yaroslav the Wise Kharkiv Law Academy. In these educational institutions, as well as in the field of legal education in general, special attention was paid to the training of judicial and investigative-prosecutorial personnel, employees for work in local councils (state- legal specialization), and others. However, little attention was paid to training specialists for the national economic sphere. As a rule, students who chose the economic-legal specialization in the relevant faculties were typically the weaker ones, unable to meet the academic requirements for other specializations, although there was a significant demand for such specialists. Thus, by the end of 1988, there were 15,000 legal advisers working at enterprises, organisations and institutions in Ukraine. At the same time, many of these positions had numerous vacancies. A number of state committees, ministries and departments, while downsizing their administrative staff, either completely abolished their legal services or significantly reduced them, cutting their numbers to one or two employees. At that time, many enterprises, organisations and institutions were left without their own legal services.
In the meantime, the fundamental restructuring of the economic management system and the new conditions for economic activity raised the issue of a radical review of existing approaches in the field of legal education and the training of lawyers who could work in the national economy. It was at this time that Professor V.F. Opryshko published a thought-provoking article in the newspaper “Pravda Ukrainy”, in which he raised the issue of the need to establish a law faculty at the Kyiv Institute of National Economy named after D. Korotchenko, as well as at other economic universities. The issue at hand was ensuring the personnel support for the legal reform, creating a clear system for the selection, training, education, and retraining of legal personnel who would be directed to work in councils of people’s deputies, national economy, police, and other law enforcement agencies. The need for legal professionals in the national economy sector began to grow, particularly because, in the context of economic reform and the strengthening of contractual discipline, there was an increasing demand for the protection of the rights of enterprises and the rights and interests of members of work collectives. The role of legal services had to be increased from the enterprise, association to the ministry or state committee.
In addressing the issue of reviving legal education at the Kyiv Institute of National Economy (KINE), first of all, it was essential to develop a concept and an appropriate curriculum for training legal specialists capable of addressing any legal issues across various sectors of the economic sphere. This version of the concept was prepared at the Department of Legal Studies and reviewed by the Academic Board of the university on June 24, 1993. Its main principles were approved. Moreover, initial measures, regarding the organization of student education in the field of “Science of Law” within the framework of the economic-legal specialization, were developed.
The offer to open the specialty and the Law Faculty was supported by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine. The Department of Legal Studies developed an experimental program for training lawyers in the economic-legal specialization, which was approved by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine. The distinguishing feature of this program was that it included the study of not only legal but also economic courses, with a ratio of 70% to 30%. The Ministry gave permission to begin training these specialists in 1993 (initially with a number of 50 people). Then the quantity of students was gradually increasing.
Considering that in 1993 there was no appropriate material and technical base to establish a separate Law Faculty, it was decided to begin training lawyers in this specialty at the Faculty of International Economics. This decision caused necessity to make changes to the name of the faculty itself, which was subsequently renamed the Faculty of International Economics and Law.
In June 1999, the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine signed an order to establish the Law Faculty within the structure of the Kyiv National Economic University (KNEU).
Over the years, the deans of the faculty have been Professors V.F. Opryshko, O.V. Soldatenko, F.P. Shulzhenko, and A.M. Kolodii.
By the order of the University Head, on April 1, 2017, the Law Faculty was reorganized into the Educational and Scientific Institute “Law Institute of the State Higher Education Institution “the Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman”, which is now known as the Educational and Scientific Institute “Law Institute of the Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman”.
Currently, the Principal of the Law Institute is Liudmyla Oleksandrivna Kozhura, Doctor of Law (Ph.D.), Professor.
The educational process is provided by 88 academic and teaching staff members (including 11 from the Department of Theoretical Jurisprudence, 30 from the Department of Public and International Law, 17 from the Department of Private Law, 16 from the Department of Political Technologies, and 14 from the Department of Foreign Languages); among them, there are 22 Doctors of Sciences, 54 Candidates of Sciences (including 2 Doctors of Philosophy), 11 senior lecturers, and 1 assistant); the Director of the “Social Justice” Legal Clinic and 9 specialists in organizing the educational process (including 2 legal clinic consultants).
The high-quality teaching staff is constantly improving due to the functioning of the Institute’s Specialized Academic Council which works with the defense of candidate dissertations in the field of 12.00.07: Administrative Law and Procedure; Financial Law; Information Law.
The Law Institute, unusual for KNEU, yet harmoniously integrated into the university’s structure, is a true revival of the Law Faculty from the 1920s, which undoubtedly represents the key to high-quality legal education and a successful future for its graduates.
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