Mr. Sergii Koziakov, Chairman of the Commission, delivered a speech at the international conference “Legal Education Quality Assurance, University Autonomy and Academic Freedom in Preparing Legal Professionals for the 21st Century”
On 24-25 April 2018, the international conference “Legal Education Quality Assurance, University Autonomy and Academic Freedom in Preparing Legal Professionals for the 21st Century”, organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine jointly with Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with support of the USAID “New Justice” Program and the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine, was held.
The event was aimed at discussing the autonomy of higher education institutions in its close connection with the improvement of the overall quality of legal education and the access to regulated legal professions; presenting methodologies and tools for legal education quality assurance; defining modern trends and innovations in legal education; developing recommendations for advancing a comprehensive legal education reform in line with international and European standards and best practices.
Opening the event, Mr. George Kent, Deputy Chief of the US Embassy Mission in Ukraine, stated: “Training highly professional, efficient judges, lawyers, and prosecutors, guided by the principles of integrity and the desire to achieve justice, is a crucial element that will enable aspirations of those, who fought and, unfortunately, died, for the right for better future of Ukraine. This is also an equally important condition for attracting foreign investment, which will create new jobs and protect Ukraine’s prosperity in the future”.
Mr. Mykola Onishchuk, Rector of the National School of Judges of Ukraine, noted that legal education was a direct element of constitutional order in the state. In particular, Mr. Mykola Onishchuk drew the attention of those, who were present, to the need of change the very concept of legal education into a practically oriented one. As the Rector of the National School of Judges of Ukraine noted, law schools’ graduates should be able to apply justice, but not the law. He also outlined three key requirements for a lawyer, namely: knowledge, thinking skills, and motivation.
Mr. Sergii Koziakov, Chairman of the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, stated in his speech, that in the framework of the Supreme Court competition, in addition to the anonymous test on the knowledge of law, candidates for the judicial positions had carried out a practical task. The Commission’s Chairman also identified three key criteria according to which the Commission carried out the qualification assessment of judges for their position compliance: professionalism, integrity and professional ethics. “These three criteria should be incorporated into the whole legal education process”, underlined Mr. Sergii Koziakov.
Mr. Andrii Boyko, member of the High Council of Justice of Ukraine, stressed on the need to introduce the active educational process. When answering questions about values necessary for legal professions’ graduates, the HCJ member listed the basic ethical principles of lawyer’s appropriate behaviour: honesty, objectivity, integrity and tolerance.
The participants of the conference considered the professional and ethical standards of judges, lawyers, prosecutors, and notaries and requirements for the regulated legal professions.
They also talked about improving teaching methods in law schools to ensure the effective training of highly qualified lawyers.
Ukrainian officials, local and foreign law school representatives, international experts, opinion leaders from the academia, legal profession, and public representatives participated in the conference.
