Ukrainian Catholic University is opening a Law Faculty. It will be a model faculty in Ukraine for value-oriented legal education on the western example. Service, ethics, practicality, global context, respect for human rights and dignity, and an awareness of lawyers’ professional responsibility to society are the basis of the instructional process for forming a new generation of Ukrainian lawyers.

UCU Rector Taras Dobko said that the creation of the Law Faculty is an invitation to greater responsibility and self-reliance. “This is also a sign of trust in the team, professors, students, graduates, and friends of the faculty, in their ability to implement systemic and radical influence on legal education and the legal structure in Ukraine. This is a sign of trust in the development of a distinctive model of legal study and a research school in legal thought in the spirit of the Christian vision of the human being and Catholic social teaching on the role of law in creating a worthy life. This is about UCU’s conscious development in response to today’s challenges in Ukraine and the world,” stated the rector.

The faculty grew out of the UCU Law School, which was founded in 2017 at the Social Sciences Faculty, and began with a master’s program in human rights, which in 2018 led the national rating for master’s programs for the quality of incoming students. Eventually, a bachelor’s program was launched. According to the rating of Forbes Ukraine, the program was number 1 in Ukraine for the quality of incoming students. In total, UCU now has 227 law students. More than 20 professors work on the school’s team, the majority are practicing lawyers, and there are also 30 guest lecturers from the USA, Germany, Great Britain, and other countries.

During their studies, more than 30% of the bachelor’s students and almost 50% of master’s students have an opportunity to study and do internships at universities of Europe and the USA. There is also a law clinic where students intern for a year and offer pro bono legal aid to soldiers, veterans, and members of their families, fulfilling a mission of service. Every year, UCU law students earn awards in national and international competitions.

The Legal Clinic of the UCU Law School

The Law School has received financing for more than 100 scholarships from top law firms of Ukraine and the world, lawyers and their families, and also other benefactors. Thanks to this, 50% of students receive financial support for their studies.

Analyzing its progress and responding to society’s challenges, the Senate of Ukrainian Catholic University on 8 February 2025 decided to transform the law school into a faculty. The new faculty will become an integral part of UCU, as at a classical university, and will form a new generation of intellectually independent lawyers to rebuild Ukraine.

The Director of the Law School, Svitlana Khyliuk, led the work on the concept of the new faculty. She stated: “Legal education should be based on values, not formally or declaratively, but essentially, as the daily practice of the functioning of the law school. Only in this way will an almost sensory feeling of justice arise in the young person. And then legislation, courtroom practice, and international agreements become an instrument to help those whom the lawyer serves for the common good,” emphasized Svitlana Khyliuk.

Svitlana Khyliuk, Director of the UCU Law School

She noted that, despite the fact that there are more than 500 legal education programs in Ukraine and more than 100 thousand law students, there is a great market for lawyers with values who can think creatively and critically, ready to serve society and the country, to defend human dignity and national interests. Responding to this demand, UCU is opening a law faculty which will offer a new approach to legal education in Ukraine.

A lawyer is a representative of the liberal professions, so the best places for the formation of lawyers are classical universities. Here there are the conditions for interaction in various fields of knowledge, the formation of a wide worldview and an independent way of thinking.

The team of the UCU Law Faculty plans to create a faculty with the world’s best standards for teaching law in a Ukrainian context, and the graduates will become leaders who will take responsibility on themselves and help overcome challenges which Ukraine faces in wartime and in post-war rebuilding.

“We are making maximum efforts for a meaningful contribution to the transformation of Ukraine’s legal system on the principles of respect for human dignity, freedom, and the rule of law. Also in focus is European integration, in particular, developing a methodology to include EU laws in the instruction of legal disciplines in Ukraine. Yet another focus will be involvement in re-thinking the very essence of the legal profession, the role of lawyers and their responsibilities.” So Svitlana Khyliuk explained the vision of the Law Faculty.

The team of the Law School with UCU Grand Chancellor His Beatitude Sviatoslav

During its existence, the UCU Law School gained the respect and support of colleagues and partners throughout the world and developed contacts with leading universities and human rights organizations. Its team works closely with the Ukrainian Bar Association and among its partners are leading law firms in Ukraine which are prepared to invest their time and resources in forming a new faculty and in its development.

“We work together with structures which are establishing an anti-corruption infrastructure in Ukraine, the supreme court, ministries, and we see a desire for discourse based on values and worldview, a need to link legal processes, procedures, and categories to a wider vision and understanding of society. The university’s function is to help in this. In this way, the Law Faculty can make its contribution to carrying out the university’s mission, to serve Ukraine and make its contribution to proposing the Ukrainian agenda in the world,” explained Svitlana Khyliuk, Director of the UCU Law School.

Students of the UCU Law School study

Addendum

The Revolution of Dignity of 2013-2014 led to the development of legal studies at Ukrainian Catholic University. Then in 2014, the university established the Rule of Law Center, where law-related events and projects were conducted and a number of certificate programs created.

In 2016, a master’s program in human rights was started at UCU. This was the first program in Ukraine focused on studying the law through the prism of human rights.

In 2017, the UCU Law School was established at the Social Sciences Faculty.

In November 2017, the Law School’s Legal Clinic started operating. Students there have the opportunity to practice jurisprudence and get involved in work with real matters. Dozens of partners are involved with the school. They intellectually and financially support the development of legal projects.

In 2018, active work began on creating a bachelor’s program according to world standards of legal higher education. In September 2020, some 50 entrants started studies at the new bachelor’s program, and their average standardized test score was 191.6 out of 200.

In 2022, the Law School became one of the founders of the Consortium of Catholic Law Schools. For the first time in Ukraine, a center of the American legal organization, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, the Ukrainian Law and Liberty Circle, began to operate at the Law School. The Law School is a member of the American Society of International Law.

In 2024, the UCU Law School took first place among law schools in the rating of Forbes Ukraine based on the average standardized test score for entrants, 174.8 out of 200. Also in this year, a renewed master’s program in law was launched.

On 8 February 2025, the UCU Senate decided to transform the Law School and open the Law Faculty of Ukrainian Catholic University.