Teaching EU Law and Policy
The preparation of new generations of Ukrainian legal professionals with solid understanding of EU law and skills is of strategic importance for Ukraine’s integration into the EU. The European Commission in its Ukraine 2023 Report underscored that high-quality legal education is key to consolidating the rule of law and fulfilling EU membership obligations and emphasized that reform efforts are still needed, particularly related to modernizing curricula with a focus on EU law, practical training, and international exchanges.
Ukrainian law schools need a network of professional contacts, access to publications on EU law, international exchanges, and quality, skills-based, and practice-oriented teaching materials on EU law. To lay the groundwork for building the capacity of Ukrainian law schools to teach EU law, the USAID Justice for All Activity is building a network/community of practice currently comprised of more than 25 Ukrainian law deans, faculty leaders and teachers of EU law representing fourteen law schools from throughout Ukraine.
The USAID Justice for All Activity helps bring faculty leaders together and empowers them with opportunities for learning, development, and international cooperation, and facilitates partnerships between Ukrainian and EU- and UK-, and US-based law schools and professional people-to-people contacts on EU law matters. Among other initiatives, the USAID Justice for All Activity assisted Oles Gonchar Dnipro National University Faculty of Law in establishing a partnership and developing its collaboration with the School of Law of the University of Sussex. This event aims to build on this partnership and collaboration and contribute to furthering international experience exchanges and furthering the teaching of EU law in Ukraine.
Objectives:
· Create a platform for dialogue and experience exchange between teachers of EU law in Ukraine, the UK, and other countries.
· Discuss the needs of Ukrainian law schools pertaining to teaching EU law and policy, related challenges, and explore opportunities for addressing such challenges through international collaboration.
· Present and discuss good practices in teaching EU law and policy in different contexts and discuss the next steps aimed at furthering international collaboration and continuous experience exchange.
Agenda (UK time)
12:50 Test readiness of Zoom tools. Enable the participants from the waiting room to join a Zoom meeting. Test simultaneous translation.
13:00-14:30 Panel 1: Teaching EU Law and Policy in Ukraine and at Sussex
This panel will bring together Ukrainian and Sussex colleagues to discuss their experiences and challenges in advancing the teaching of EU law and policy. The aim is to share best practices and techniques, and reflect on different approaches in this field. Points of discussion will include the development of international people-to-people contacts and institutional partnerships aimed at building the capacity of Ukrainian law schools to teach EU law, teaching models at Sussex, possible formats and approaches to designing EU law and policy modules, choice of methods and substantive areas, and approaches to assessment.
Chair: Prof Nuno Ferreira (University of Sussex)
Speakers:
- Mr Artem Shaipov, Legal Advisor, USAID Justice for All Activity, Ukraine
- Prof Kateryna Berezhna, Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, Faculty of Law, Ukraine
- Dr Samantha Velluti, University of Sussex, UK
- Dr Liana Japaridze, University of Sussex, UK
15:00 – 16:30 Panel 2: Teaching EU Law and Policy: Variations and innovations
The panel will address different approaches to teaching EU law and policy, variations depending on characteristics of the domestic legal systems, use of different methods (visual, online, etc.), specificity of certain EU law and policy sources and topics, and the context of EU candidate countries and accession process.
Chair: Dr Neil Dooley (University of Sussex)
Speakers:
- Professor Noelle Quenivet and Mr Christian Dadomo, UWE Bristol, United Kingdom
- Dr Maria O’Neill, Abertay University, United Kingdom
- Ms Laura Gheorghiu, Karl Franzens University Graz, Austria
- Ms Jaanika Erne, University of Tartu, Estonia