ON JUNE 24, NATIONAL EXPERTS OF THE EU PROJECT “PRAVO-JUSTICE” PRESENTED FOR DISCUSSION THE DRAFT GUIDELINES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MEDIATION COMPETENCE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE STANDARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE SECOND (MASTER’S) LEVEL IN THE SPECIALTY 081 LAW.
THE PARTICIPANTS INCLUDED REPRESENTATIVES OF LAW SCHOOLS FROM LVIV, CHERNIVTSI, ODESA, KHARKIV, DNIPRO, DONETSK, AND LUHANSK REGIONS THAT ARE MEMBERS OF THE REGIONAL JUSTICE REFORM COUNCILS (RJRCS). In her introductory remarks, Oksana Tsymbrivska, Chief National Expert of the EU Pravo-Justice Project, emphasized that previous discussions with law schools revealed a lack of uniform understanding of the content of mediation competence and its implementation: “With the help of expert recommendations, we aim to improve the understanding of the content of this competence and promote the development of a unified approach to its teaching in law schools.” Dovydas Vitkauskas, Head of the EU Pravo-Justice Project, welcomed the inclusion of mediation in law school curricula according to the Ministry of Education Standard, which includes “the ability to apply mediation and other legal instruments of alternative dispute resolution” among the graduate competencies.
At the same time, he noted that it is necessary to distinguish between the formation of knowledge and skills in the use of mediation and the training of mediators: “It is important to understand that a master’s degree graduate does not automatically become a mediator. They must acquire basic knowledge of this type of dispute resolution in order to give informed advice to clients and parties in litigation.” Andriy Boyko, Head of the Subcommittee on Law of the Scientific and Methodological Council of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, national expert of the EU Law-Justice Project, spoke in detail about the peculiarities of forming mediation competence, skills and abilities that a student should have according to the Standard.
Among other things, the mediation curriculum should:

  • be integrated with training programs in certain areas of both substantive and procedural law;
  • be based on knowledge from other fields: psychology, sociology, cultural studies, etc;
  • be methodologically consistent with the development of other general and special competencies provided by the Standard;
  • provide for practical training.

“The active introduction of mediation into educational programs will undoubtedly contribute to the fact that the culture of mediation, the necessary knowledge and practical skills will be implemented by lawyers in their professional activities,” said Andriy Boyko.
“The developed recommendations are a real practical help for law schools. […] We need to actively form the culture of mediation from the bottom up, consolidate efforts and promote the still insignificant practical experience in teaching mediation and its conduct as much aspossible,“ emphasized Petro Patskurkivsky, Dean of the Law Faculty, Doctor of Law, Professor of the Department of Public Law of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, representative of the Chernivtsi RRRP.
Volodymyr Rodchenko, PhD in Economics, Professor, Deputy Director of the Karazin School of Business at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, national expert of the EU Pravo-Justice Project, presented recommendations on the organization of mediation teaching.
In particular, the experts propose to include a separate compulsory academic discipline on mediation in educational programs with a volume of at least three ECTS credits, as well as to use interactive teaching methods, such as a combination of mini-lectures, small group discussions, case studies, facilitation, brainstorming, etc.
“One of the key ideas in organizing the training process is to focus on practical training, on understanding what the process is and how it can coexist with the traditional adversarial model of dispute resolution,” said Rodchenko. Larysa Nalyvaiko, Doctor of Law, Professor, Vice-Rector of the Dnipro State University of Internal Affairs, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine and representative of the Dnipro RRRPemphasized the importance of practical training of students and teachers, as well as the need to involve as many higher education institutions as possible in the exchange of experience: “We need to change the low culture of mediation in Ukraine. This is a completely new format of thinking, so these changes need to be disseminated through the information activities carried out by the EU Project.”

Nelli Golubeva, Doctor of Law, Professor, Head of the Department of Civil Procedure at the National University “Odesa Law Academy”, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine and representative of the Odesa RRRPsupported the importance of a separate academic discipline on mediation: “This course is not only about law and conflict resolution, it is about educating our students – future lawyers.”.
«Все більше правничих професій застосовують медіацію. Тому нам треба прагнути, щоб це була не вибіркова, а обов’язкова дисципліна, щоб будь-який студент-правник зміг отримати базові знання про таку можливість», — додала Аліна Сергєєва, адвокат, медіатор, національний експерт Проєкту ЄС «Право-Justice». Наостанок Оксана Цимбрівська запевнила учасників, що Проєкт ЄС «Право-Justice» і далі підтримуватиме різні напрями впровадження інституту медіації в Україні.
Окрім юридичної освіти, Проєкт також працює над визначенням категорій справ, у яких можливо застосовувати медіацію. Довідка: Проєкт ЄС «Право-Justice» у 2020 році провів глибокий аналіз законодавчих та інституційних прогалин впровадження медіації в Україні в різних сферах права.
За його наслідками були визначені стратегічні цілі й напрями розвитку інституту медіації в Україні.
Зокрема, міжнародні і національні експерти рекомендували зробити медіацію невіддільним компонентом юридичної освіти. Регіональні ради з питань реформи правосуддя (РРРП) створені за підтримки Проєкту ЄС «Право-Justice» і функціонують у Чернівецькій, Дніпропетровській, Харківській, Львівській, Одеській областях та Донбасі. To date, members of the Councils have been actively involved in the preparation of a draft law on mediation, amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, proposals to improve legislation on enforcement proceedings, the introduction of an electronic court, and discussions on the concept of transitional justice. The RECs act as permanent working groups that promote the implementation of reforms in accordance with the bottom-up principle: by bringing region-specific challenges and their potential solutions to the level of central authorities.

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