Svitlana Khyliuk, Director of UCU Law School, envisioned bringing a Western-style law school to UCU, one that could prepare lawyers for a new Ukraine.

Ukrainian Catholic University’s Law School may be one of the newest and smallest law schools in Ukraine, but according to Forbes Ukraine, they are ranked number one. The difference, according to Professor Khyliuk, is their strong feeling of community. “We have solidarity, one of the Catholic core values. We are the only Catholic law school in Ukraine.”

At UCU, Values Are Woven Into the Curriculum

UCU’s law school emphasizes that ethics, serving the greater good and pro bono work are critical parts of the legal profession. “It’s not about money,” says Professor Khyliuk. “There is nothing wrong with money, but at UCU, we believe the key goal of the legal profession is to serve the common good. Our students spend two mandatory semesters in the law clinic, focusing on pro bono aid to war veterans.”

Each week, those students go to the Superhumans Center, a rehabilitation clinic for veterans and amputees. The veterans often have legal issues associated with compensation or bureaucratic paperwork, so the law students collect requests, provide consultations, draft applications or offer other legal counsel.

This work teaches values, of course, and perspective, as the Superhuman’s patients are often in their early 20s, the same age as the law students.

“Seeing their peers as veterans and amputees affects our students’ mindsets as citizens and as lawyers and helps to build the feeling of responsibility and solidarity,” says Professor Khyliuk. “Our students realize that though they are not in the trenches, they can still do their part, using their skills to help those who were in the trenches protecting the country and all of our families.”

The work also gives the students the pragmatic knowledge and experience they will need as practicing attorneys: interviewing clients, drafting documents, and explaining legal issues in layman’s terms.

Building Practical Skills for a New Ukraine

Before she came to UCU, Professor Khyliuk was teaching criminal law at a public university in Lviv, searching for a more innovative way to teach law. She wanted to bring a human rights perspective to criminal law, because in Ukraine, under Soviet rule, criminal law was nothing more than an instrument of repression. When she came to UCU, she was able to develop the kind of law school she had dreamed about.

“I had so many ideas, but I had always heard, ‘It’s not possible to do that here. Don’t look at the U.S. or Europe. It is possible there, but it is not possible here.’ I was determined to bring different standards of higher legal education to Ukraine and to prove that it is possible to have such a law school in Ukraine -in Ukrainian context, in Ukrainian reality, as a university. And now at UCU we are doing it! We need a new generation of lawyers with a different value system to restart the system and this is the goal of our law school.”

“Because of the rapid and systemic change in Ukraine due to the war, our students will find themselves in a situation where there is no legal rule to apply – nothing,” Professor Khyliuk points out. “We teach them that because of war and all the challenges the war brought, there may be no existing law to apply. So they should be able to design legal mechanisms based only on principles and offer a legal solution where there may have been none. This is a vastly different mindset for lawyers and at UCU, we recognize that it requires a different way of thinking.”

The UCU Law School has many innovative ways of teaching these skills. “In one of our master’s program courses, we assembled law students from UCU and architects students from the Kharkiv School of Architecture in the same classroom to examine how to rebuild infrastructure from a legal aspect, ” explains Professor Khyliuk. “The two groups organically discuss all the problems surrounding rebuilding infrastructure. The final assignment for the course was to develop a plan to rebuild one of Mariupol’s public spaces. The student architects do their part, but there are so many bylaws and rules for construction in Ukrainian cities that a legal perspective is also necessary. We don’t want to rebuild the cities the same way they were before the war, we want to rebuild the country with human-centered urban spaces, so our lawyers need to be able to listen and understand architecture and then design legal mechanisms that give the best approach to rebuilding the cities.”

Giving Ukrainian Law Students a Global Context

Because Ukraine does not have a longstanding democratic tradition, UCU prioritizes connecting its students with academia outside Ukraine. One-third of the bachelor students who graduated in 2024 spent a semester abroad in Europe or the U.S. “We need to give our students that experience,” emphasizes Professor Khyliuk. “It changes their perception of higher education and professional standards and values. Then it is easier for them to understand concepts like rule of law, freedom, dignity.”

UCU offers many courses in various fields of international law: EU Law, Law of the Council of Europe,  International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law, and Human Rights International Standards. The courses are taught in English in cooperation with partner universities.

UCU Law School is a Unique Community

The values UCU imparts and the context in which it teaches create a strong sense of community among its members. Alumni demonstrate solidarity by returning to train students for international moot court competitions. One devoted alumnus continued training the students even as he served in the army, and with his guidance, the team won their competition in Helsinki.  When the students’ stellar performance garnered a special prize from a top Finnish law firm, they used their prize money to pay it forward by funding a scholarship for a new law student for the following year. Those students were receiving scholarships and could not afford their own tuition, yet they were ready to share their winnings with their colleagues. They are part of a community that understands how values matter.

UCU Law School Beyond UCU

As part of UCU’s Strategy 2030, the law school is focused on building the best educational institution it can while actively contributing to the recovery of Ukraine. This year they will host a judicial conference with an expected 88 judges – 40 from the Supreme Court of Ukraine – to discuss EU integration and the role of the judiciary through this process. In all of the events UCU hosts, the agenda includes a conversation about values.

Professor Khyliuk is grateful to donors in the U.S. who understand the deep-seated value of UCU. “Right now, in the news, Americans hear what Ukraine needs: weapons, ammunition, medical supplies, and this is true. We need those to win the war. But to win the future we need investment in our education.  This is the only way to help Ukraine to be a successful country in the future. Even the tragic and difficult circumstances in Ukraine right now represent an opportunity to find solutions for us and the rest of the world.  A successful and strong Ukraine will guarantee peace in Europe and globally.  Academia wants to take the chance but we need support.”

UCU’s law school is training a new generation of lawyers to understand the role of the legal profession in society and their responsibility to the state. “We are in a unique historical circumstance and there are no ready solutions for us. We are training our lawyers for the new Ukraine.”