Russian Legal Education Research Articles

Вклад Н.Е. Чижова в развитие отечественного юридического образования (к 170-летию со дня рождения ученого)

2023 marks the 170th anniversary of the birth of Nikolai Efimovich Chizhov (1853–1910), Doctor of State Law, Honored Professor of the Department of Encyclopedia and Philosophy of Law of Novorossiysk Imperial University, state Councilor and public figure. The article examines the main milestones of the scientist’s professional life, focuses on the contribution of N.E. Chizhov to the development of Russian legal education, which was in demand at the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century in connection with the development of the judicial system, the formation of law enforcement agencies, as well as representative (legislative) state authorities. The author of the article comes to the conclusion about the value of N.E. Chizhov’s views for modern legal education, striving for constant improvement of the quality of education and the effectiveness of legal education.

Russian Legal Education: The Present and the Future

The paper examines the issues of modern Russian legal education that developed under the auspices of the Bologna educational system. Since the introduction of the Bologna rules, which Russian innovators interpreted exclusively in a subjective way, domestic education has not improved. On the contrary, all those positive characteristics that education possessed within the Russian borders began to gradually disappear, striving to blindly copy foreign variants. Many problems have appeared in education, mainly due to the departure from Russian cultural values and the attempt to replace them with foreign standards. As a result, educational levels have appeared, which, in theory, require an original educational approach. But such an approach requires saturation of the curriculum material of one level to the detriment of another, which is hardly feasible. It is emphasized that Russian traditions in education, their reanimation, including a return to specialist’s degree, are able to raise the educational level of Russia to the proper height again. The paper briefly comments on the efforts of Russian scientists, mainly professors of the Higher School of Economics, in the field of improving the educational process. The problem of the effectiveness of lecturing in conditions of simplified information acquisition is raised. As the main sketch from this area, the author gives a review of the work by Maria S. Shakaryan, who proposed a certain algorithm for reading introductory lectures.

ЧЕРЕЗ ФОРМУЛУ К ЗВЕЗДАМ: О СИСТЕМЕ ОЦЕНИВАНИЯ В ЮРИДИЧЕСКОМ ОБРАЗОВАНИИ

The article comprises a critical analysis of the assessment system used in legal education. The study builds up on the premise that assessment is meant to, on the one hand, evaluate the student’s level of achieving the educational goals, and, on the other hand, provide valuable feedback to both the student and the teacher on ways to improve their learning and teaching strategies. The author makes an attempt to define the basic principles, as well as specific rules for designing an effective assessment formula for a legal course. To start with, the author engages in a general discussion of different types of assessment and the role they play in educating future lawyers. The author then proceeds to discuss specific assessment tools that are widely used in Russian legal education: evaluation of in-class performance, written assignments and final exams. The author comes to a conclusion that the toolkit incorporated in the course’s assessment formula should create a fair, plain and objective system that motivates the student to deep learning and clearly indicates strengths and areas for improvement. The article provides examples of effective assessment tasks, as well as specific recommendations for designing an effective evaluation formula for a legal course.

АНТИКЛИНИКА КАК ФОРМАТ КОНСТРУКТИВНОГО ЮРИДИЧЕСКОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

The article is devoted to overcoming the crisis of the Russian legal system in the context of digital transformation. The analysis is based on the Russian legal education as a way of reproducing the carriers of legal knowledge and related values. The article considers six factors that influence this process: motivation, competition, transformation, micro-education, actualisation and multimodality. Based on the results, the format of the anticlinic is considered as a legal educational environment that optimally takes into account these factors and allows creating fair legal norms.

Law School Learning Outcomes: Legal English Course Contribution

Abstract Standards of professional legal education are developed by different organizations: in some countries these are governmental bodies, in others these are professional associations. Apart from a country these standards include Learning Outcomes which shape law schools’ curricula. Both American and European standards mention, to different extent, written and oral communication in the legal context, but a number and contents of subjects directed at developing and mastering professional communicative competency differ a lot. There are disciplines totally devoted to the competency named (e.g. legal writing) as well as courses in which communicative skills are an integral constituent for their successful completion (e.g. basis of negotiations/mediation/client consultation). The article goal is to find a place and role of a Legal English (LE) course in achieving learning outcomes connected with professional communicative competence. The methodology incorporated desk and field studies. The literature review is aimed at identifying current state of affairs in American law schools, as they provide first-class legal education recognized all over the world, and in Russian law schools, as the author works in this system and is interested in its development. A questionnaire was designed to explore Russian law school graduates’ assessment of practicality of subjects they had studied for their professional activities. The analysis of literature and Internet sources allowed to specify the ways of teaching written and oral communication in American law schools and to highlight the situation in Russian legal education. It shows that the Russian system is characterized by predominance of teaching theory of substantive and procedural rules of law and lack of curriculum disciplines aimed at cultivating skills and competencies. A survey of Russian law schools’ recent graduates indicates that most of communicative, in a broad sense, skills, which they use in their everyday work, were obtained within their LE classes. So, complementing a LE course with modules devoted to different aspects of legal writing and specific patterns of lawyer-client, lawyer-lawyer, lawyer-judge communication will definitely contribute to achieving learning outcomes which are put forward by legal education standards.

Primary methods of internationalisation of higher legal education

Introduction. Recent trends in the sphere of internationalisation of higher education expand theoretical insights into the dialectical nature of correlation between pedagogical science and educational practice, as well as the relationship between the general direc tions of the development of higher education, its national and regional specifics. An analysis of the experience of internationalisation of universities is required for the development of various models to modernise higher education, including legal education, and to substantiate practical recommendations for reforming the Russian higher education system. To date, an understanding has been reached of the need to internationalise higher education in the context of globalization to increase the competitiveness of the Russian higher education system, as evidenced by the Federal project to maximise the competitive position of Russian universities among the world’s leading scientific and educational centres (The Russian Academic Excellence Project 5-100). Internationalisation, being the key to optimising the export potential of Russian higher education, is essential for the modernisation of legal education.Aim. The research aimed to evaluate the productivity of actual instruments of international cooperation between universities and to outline optimal approaches to the usage of successful practices of international and Russian educational space to enhance the attractiveness of Russian legal education, and, as a consequence, the creation of a sustainable competitive advantage of a higher education institution.Methodology and research methods. Complex, interdisciplinary goals and tasks of the present research predetermined the application of gnoseological and synergetic approaches to the selection of research tools. The gnoseological approach facilitated a more profound analysis of the nature of internationalisation and integration of education in the current international processes. The synergetic approach resulted in the integration of pedagogical and legal research methods to define an optimal internationalisation strategy for the training of multiskilled legal professionals.Results. The authors assessed the effectiveness of the existing ways of internationalization of Russian legal education according to foreign student demand. A comprehensive analysis of the legal, political and social aspects of the current state of attractiveness of the Russian market of educational services and the need to identify the specifics of the internationalization of higher legal education was carried out. The experience monitoring of inter-university international cooperation allowed the authors to determine the conditions for the effectiveness of joint legal programmes (creation of an innovative educational environment, project activities and a flexible management system); to analyse modern pedagogical technologies applicable to legal disciplines; to determine the best schemes used by Russian and European universities for external mobility of students and teachers; to develop the proposals for the introduction of disciplines (for Russian students) provided in foreign languages by Russian and foreign teachers; to propose measures to improve the state policy in the field of interest, aimed at stimulating Russian universities to develop international joint educational programmes.Scientific novelty. The article presented the analysis of positive and negative experiences of Russian universities in application of internationalisation key tools in legal higher education. The acknowledged internationalisation methods of higher education were systematised in general. The additional ways for the integration of Russian legal education, in particular, to the international educational space, were identified.Practical significance consists in the approbation of new methods based on competency and practice-oriented approaches. The authors developed the guidelines for the implementation of internationalisation to enhance university competitive advantage and to increase the demand for graduates in labour market.

Особенности реализации компетентностного подхода в юридическом образовании по направлению «Юриспруденция» в современной России в связи с принятием нового ФГОС по юриспруденции

Analyzed is the problem of implementing the competence-based approach in legal education as one of pressing problems facing Russian legal education. The urgency of this problem is due to the fact that at present new standards have been adopted in various areas of training, incl. the direction 40.03.01 “Jurisprudence” (FGOS 3 ++). In connection with adoption of this standard, the problem arises of understanding the features of the process of its implementation by educational institutions of higher education that train lawyers in this area of training. The subject of the research in this article is the patterns and features of the implementation of the competence-based approach in legal education in this area of training. In the course of the study, the features of the implementation of the competence-based approach in this area of raining in modern Russia were analyzed in connection with the adoption of the new Federal State Educational Standards in jurisprudence. A competence-based model of a lawyer is presented, as well as requirements for the technology for the formation and assessment of formation of competencies in this area of training in modern Russia, including the use of automated systems for compiling educational and methodological documentation that ensure the educational process.

Становление юридического образования на территории города Севастополя. Историко-биографический аспект

The paper explores historical and social circumstances of the foundation of the Institute of Law of Sevastopol in 1919–1920, the focus being on the importance of various triggering political events, the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War (1917–1922), among others, which have influenced the birth and life of this educational institution. Further emphasis is laid on the fundamentals and significance of Russian legal education, its place in social life and emerging intellectual circles of a specific historical period. The article probes the historical and biographical contexts of the lives and fates of such seminal members of staff of the Sevastopol Law Institute as Gogel S.K. and Pashe-Ozerski N.N. At that, the biographical approach provides deep insight into how historical events like the October Revolution, the Russian Civil War, repression and emigration are interrelated and what impact they had had on society as a whole and individuals in particular. The article then goes on to explore the role and function of certain departments affiliated with the Sevastopol Law Institute, as well as its faculties and the board of trustees. It also concerns the purpose of a peasant law course specially designated as part of the Institute`s curriculum and its effects on a land reform implemented to grant the maximum possible freedom of land administration and zemstvo activities. Accomplished by General Wrangel P. N. in 1920, the reform could certainly become a landmark agricultural initiative for the future of Russia and fundamentally revitalize the social and political system.

Studying the History of Political and Lgal Doctrines in Russian Jurisprudence in the 20th — Early 21st Century: Conditions, Directions, Results

The paper is devoted to the role of the history of political and legal ideas in state construction, science and education. In this aspect, the problems related to amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation initiated by the President of the Russian Federation are considered. According to the author, these initiatives are a logical continuation of the planned changes in the political system, the mechanism (apparatus) of the state, the system of local self-government, contained in the most general form in the annual address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly. Such an early date for the address, the subsequent submission of the draft Federal Law to the State Duma without delay, and the work on implementing the provisions contained in it, leave no doubt that there is some strategy for Russia’s political development in the near future. In this regard, an assessment of the political situation in modern Russia is given and suggestions are made regarding the further evolution of the institutions of society and the state. The dialectical relationship between the national development model and its ideological justification is argued. The author emphasizes the special role of ideas in the history of Russian statehood. In addition, the paper reflects the assessment of the history of political and legal doctrines in the system of social sciences and legal education in the Soviet and post-Soviet period. There is evidence of the need to increase the role of theoretical and historical disciplines in the context of modern "hybrid" war and the strengthening of global competition for major geopolitical projects. The idea of reorienting Russian legal education from the study of legislation, which is changing so quickly that it does not actually take the form of knowledge, to the study of law in all its manifestations as a universal regulator of public relations.

HISTORICAL AND LEGAL COURSES IN RUSSIAN LEGAL EDUCATION: TRADITIONS, MODERNIZATION, CONTINUITY

The article considers one of the stable features of the Russian legal education - the presence and development of the historical and legal component in it. The evolution of educational standards for the professional training of lawyers is analyzed from the point of view of the mandatory inclusion of historical and legal courses in pre-revolutionary Russia, in the Soviet decades and on the breaks of eras. The change of names of historical and legal disciplines in the context of the development of legal education and science as a whole is shown. Some problems of teaching subjects of historical and legal content at the present stage, as part of a practice-oriented model of legal education, are identified. In addition, the results of a local study conducted at USLU are presented to determine the attitude of students to the history of the state and law, to reveal their understanding of the role of historical and legal subjects for the chosen future professional activity; among them - optimistic judgments of junior students about the need for knowledge of historical and legal experience. The conclusion is drawn on the fundamental importance of historical and legal courses to ensure state legal and legal educational traditions.

Dmitriy I. Meyer's Ideas and their Significance for Contemporary Legal Education

The article is devoted to the analysis of the interrelationship between historical and traditional principles of Russian law and Russian legal education. The authors demonstrate the relevance of Prof. Dmitriy I. Meyer’s ideas for training future lawyers and modern legal education. The paper justifies the obligatory connection between the legal theory and practice in the learning process, which originates from Dmitriy Meyer’s understanding of a practice-oriented education. A legal clinic forms a necessary basis for the development of Dmitriy I. Meyer’s idea regarding the interrelationship between practical work and legal education. Dmitriy I. Meyer’s opinion concerning the dependence of the “measure of freedom” on the “legal views of the people that in turn are inextricably linked with the moral law, i.e. with the concepts of what is just and what is unjust,” is relevant for the development of modern client-oriented legal education. Dmitriy I. Meyer, as well as his contemporaries and followers, have drawn attention to the quality of normative texts, which is important due to the fact that law schools do not pay attention to such a specialization in legal education as a “norm-writer.” Today, the concept of combining practice and theory in training lawyers has become important, which requires reference to Dmitriy I. Meyer and other predecessors on the issue of combining theoretical and practical foundations in legal education. It is impossible to become a highly qualified specialist in the field of jurisprudence with a complex of necessary general cultural and professional competencies without the ability to resolve practical cases, without using theoretical knowledge in practice, without the corresponding knowledge of digital technologies in the field of jurisprudence, without the ability to write normative texts.

Digital Technologies, Social Processes, Modernization of Law and Possible Future of Russian Legal Education

The article deals with a number of problems associated with the transition to a new technological order has acquired the name of the 4th technological revolution in modern literature. The author focuses on changes that are take place in the organization of production and exchange of values. An attempt is made to forecast the development of the modern Russian society in the most important areas: economic, social, and spiritual. The author highlights the role of digital technologies in the modernization of the system of social regulation. There is a peculiar tendency of “technologization” of law, its transformation in the conditions of development of modern technologies. It is necessary to revise the recently established approaches to legal education. It is stated that rapid quantitative and qualitative changes that characterize the modern era, require a reorientation of education, which should be aimed at the extraction and assimilation of new knowledge that can be secured on the ground of a firm academic basis.

Special features of Russian legal education in terms of the evolution of human rights

Special features of Russian legal education in terms of the evolution of human rights

Модель конституционализма в развитии современного российского юридического образования

The article studies the development processes of Russian legal education, which should be based on the idea of implementing a model of constitutionalism. The attention of the author is paid to the problems of legal understanding, the construction of a state based on the rule of law, the goal of which should be the establishment of coordinated interaction between all subjects of legal relations – the state, society, personality, which need to be paid attention by modern law education. The paper notes that the assertion of a constitutionalism model in society as a general social value is connected with the authority of fair legislation.

Russian Legal Education in the Eurasian Educational Space

Russian Legal Education in the Eurasian Educational Space

The University Age: Historical and Legal Notes to the Centenary of the Ural State Law University

The Ural State Law University solemnly celebrated its centenary. It updated the appeal to the past of the university, to the traditions of Russian legal education and science. The anniversary became simultaneously an event, an object of study, and a strategy for learning the legal-university history. The aim of the article is to defie promising, largely interrelated historical and legal subjects of the history of the law university. Multifaceted signifiance of the anniversary for the law university is considered: its role in the development of academic culture and corporate commemorative practices, in promoting the image of the university, in gaining new knowledge on the university, in studying the pre-institute period of its history (1918–1931). The problem of the sources of knowledge on the history of the USLU is defied. The particular importance of legitimizing the transition periods is described. For example, the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 1919 explicitly recognized the university in Irkutsk and the faculty of law as the basis of our university. The author raised the question of the need to interpret sources that are not typical for the law university history’ such as oral history, museum subjects. The article noted the importance of politics and ideology in the history of law university, as well as the prospects of its consideration through the prism of the anthropological approach.

К вопросу о создании научных юридических клиник в России

The problem of improvement of the Russian legal education is one of the topical issues facing the Russian legal science. One of the most important directions of the improvement of the Russian legal education is the development of a network of legal clinics under higher educational institutions of legal profile. The present article contains the analysis of the legal regulation peculiarities of the public relations in the field of establishing and activities of legal clinics. Gaps and lacks of legal regulation of work of legal clinics were identified, in particular statutory conflict which on the one hand aimed at the development of legal skills of students, as well as counselling skills, on the other hand — the voluntary participation of the students in the work of the clinic. The author shows the ways to resolve this conflict, including arranging of the students’ practice at the legal clinic, shows the possibility and the need to strengthen the scientific component of legal clinics work, including establishment of so-called scientific legal clinics which will provide legal assistance not only to the general public but also to the legislative, executive and judicial authorities in the sphere of improvement of legislation and practice of its implementation.

Chief Editor’s Note on ‘Bologna Process’ in Russian Legal Education

Chief Editor’s Note on ‘Bologna Process’ in Russian Legal Education

Russian legal education today: problems and prospects

This article is devoted to study of regulatory legal aspects which Russian Federation implemented pursuant to the so-called Bologna Declaration - a joint declaration of the European Ministers of Education adopted in Bologna on June 19, 1999, which Russian Federation joined in the year 2003. In the present article institutional transformation taken by Russian Federation in this way, as well as various organizational and legal difficulties that Russian education system faced on the way of implementation and commitments taken as per international agreements in this area. On the basis of understanding of juridical education as a constitutional value the article analyses the present state of juridical education through the prism of constitutional security of the state, society and personality. This problem aggravated due to inclusion of juridical education into Bologna process and artificial introduction of twolevel system of juridical education (baccalaureate - master’s degree), change of philosophical-worldview fundamentals of the juridical education. It makes the task of elaboration of a national conception of training of juridical personnel topical.

ЮРИДИЧЕСКАЯ КЛИНИКА КАК ИННОВАЦИОННАЯ ФОРМА ОБУЧЕНИЯ СТУДЕНТОВ-ЮРИСТОВ

The paper discusses the process of the modernization of Russian legal education, in which a special focus is on practical training of future lawyers; an important role in this process belongs to clinical teaching. There determined the value of a legal clinic as an organizational structure and a special training program. The integration of these values allows identifying the nature of the legal clinic as an innovative method for training law students; the essence of the method is to develop the students’ professional competences through dealing with “real” cases and solving real problems. The paper describes the content and programme of clinical legal education, presents an innovative (clinical) curriculum, including general and special training courses, areas of the legal clinic activity and rules for the legal work of students under the guidance of teachers to provide free legal services for low-income and underprivileged citizens. The author elaborates on possible offsite trips for the purpose of providing free legal aid and legal public awareness (the reception of citizens in the offices of government and municipal institutions, legal assistance to non-government organizations, thematic seminars, walk-in days, visits to the regions of the Republic, etc.). The author further analyses the role of the legal clinic at higher institutions and its value for students, teachers and clients.