In accordance with the current inter-institutional agreement within the framework of the Erasmus + programme between the National University ‘Odesa Law Academy’ and the University of Seville (Spain), in order to gain international experience in the implementation of scientific activities, improve the level of theoretical and practical training and increase the level of foreign language proficiency, Margarita Zhakun, a postgraduate student of the Department of International and European Law of the National University ‘OLA’, took part in the international academic mobility programme in the form of a scientific internship at the Faculty of Law of the University of Seville (Spain).

This was announced at an official press conference by the management of the higher education institution.

The University's staff believes that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine mistakenly and hastily adopted an order to terminate the activities of the National University ‘OLA’ by merging it with another educational institution without any legal basis. In addition, the said legal act was adopted in violation of the statutory procedure for adoption and the procedure for publication, without public discussion, without taking into account the opinion of the staff, students, local authorities of Odesa and Odesa region.

As noted by the Acting Vice-Rector of the University, Professor Raisa Minchenko, the adoption of the acts by the central executive authorities violated the constitutional rights of the staff to free choice of employment, the rights of students to free choice of place of study and safe working, study and living conditions during martial law, which were created in our higher education institution.

Today, on 14 February 2025, an extraordinary meeting of the supreme collegial self-governing body of the University - the Conference of the staff - was held at the National University ‘Odesa Law Academy’.

In accordance with the requirements of the Statute, the Conference was convened by the decisions of the Academic Council and the Primary Trade Union Organization of the National University ‘OLA’. The meeting was attended by representatives of all structural subdivisions of the University, including research and teaching staff, students, postgraduate students, doctoral students, and employees of the administrative bodies of the educational institution.

These days became a real professional discovery - participation in a training on international project development for employees of Ukrainian universities-members of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). The training entitled ‘Veille et montage de projets internationaux’ was organised from 27 to 31 January by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) in cooperation with the Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava in Suceava, Romania.

Lecturers of the Department of Foreign Languages I.P. Marchuk, PhD in Pedagogy, Associate Professor, and N.G. Ivanova, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, represented the National University ‘Odesa Law Academy’ with dignity.

The National University ‘Odesa Law Academy’ has confirmed its high position in the scientific field by entering the international Transparent Ranking (January 2025), which is based on the number of citations in Google Scholar. According to the ranking, our university took 21st place among 107 Ukrainian higher education institutions. The citation value is 62,316.

The Transparent Ranking is a special ranking compiled by the Cybermetrics Lab (Institute of Politics and Public Administration, CSIC, Spain). The ranking evaluates the scientific activity of more than 6300 universities by the number of citations in Google Scholar profiles. Data for the ranking is collected twice a year (in January and July).

On 15 January, the Ukrainian Club of IE University and the International Law Society of the School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs held a debate on the challenges facing Ukraine on its way to EU membership.

IE University's School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs is an institution dedicated to preparing the next generation of global leaders in government, international organisations, corporations and civil society, empowering them to face the challenges of today. The event was attended by Johanna Jacobsson, CEO of Lawcrosse and Adjunct Professor at IE University, Dr Martínez-Tapia, a political scientist specialising in party systems, and Pablo Rupérez Pascualena, an economist and diplomat with extensive experience in European affairs.

On 13 January 2025, at a meeting of the Presidium of the Ukrainian Association of Criminal Law, the results of the Professor V. Tatsiy Scientific Paper Competition were summed up. The second Competition is dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the founder and long-time leader of the Association, Academician Vasyl Yakovlevich Tatsiy.

Based on the results of the study and double-blind review of scientific articles by the Contest Committee, the organising committee of the Contest decided to award

In the academic year 2023-2024, Larysa Bielik, PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Criminalistics, Detective and Operational Investigative Activities, completed an international academic mobility programme at the Central Swedish University (Sweden). As part of this programme, Larysa took part in the research project ‘Corporate Crime Prevention: Priority Conditions for Strategic Development’, which aims to study the impact of crime on small and medium-sized businesses in Sweden.

The study revealed a significant impact of crime on business activities, which is particularly evident in small and medium-sized enterprises. As a result of the research, Larysa Belik, together with Professor Teresa Silva, the project leader, prepared a scientific report that presents the findings and offers recommendations for reducing business risks.

In 2023-2024, Tetiana Melnychuk, Candidate of Law, Associate Professor of the Department of Criminal Procedure of the National University “Odesa Law Academy”, continued her cooperation with the University of Osnabrück (Germany) as a visiting scholar.

This stage of the scientific internship coincided with the half-century anniversary of the German university, which made it even more exciting to delve into its history and get acquainted with numerous milestones, new beginnings, countless successes and, of course, failures that marked the past years, but made it possible to reassess efforts and shape future development vectors.

In addition to getting acquainted with the organisation of the educational process and the use of leading methods and techniques for teaching criminal law disciplines, the associate professor studied in detail the foreign experience of organising scientific work at the Centre for the Study of European and International Criminal Law at the University of Osnabrück; improved her research skills through testing and mastering the latest methodological approaches to processing and analysing criminological information.

On 3-4 October 2024, the International Scientific Jubilee Conference "Realities and Prospects of National Legal Education. 65 Years in the Service of National Jurisprudence", organised by the Faculty of Law of the State University of Moldova.

On behalf of the National University "Odesa Law Academy", the Dean of the Faculty of Law Serghei Brinza was greeted by the Head of the International Relations Office Daria Minchenko.

On 13 September 2024, the National University ‘Odesa Law Academy’ was honoured to receive the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, Mr Nguyen Hong Thach. The Ambassador was accompanied by the Honorary Counsellor of the Embassy of Vietnam in Ukraine, Professor Andriy Gorchakov, and the representative of the Honorary Consulate of Vietnam in Odesa, Mr Nguyen Hung.

The meeting of the distinguished guests was attended by the President of the National University ‘Odesa Law Academy’ Sergiy Kivalov, the Rector of the University Oleg Todoshchak, the Head of the International Relations Office Daria Minchenko, and the Rector of the International Humanitarian University Kostiantyn Hromovenko.

“What kind of neighbor do we want to see returning from prison?” - this is the slogan used by Swiss law enforcement officials in the field of criminal policy. What should the criminal justice system of Ukraine be like in the wartime and post-war periods? This question was the main focus of the X (XXIII) Lviv Criminal Justice Forum, which took place in Lviv under the auspices of the OSCE on September 19-20, 2021.

Members of the Working Group on Criminal Law Development, OSCE experts, Council of Europe experts, judges, lawyers, investigators, and representatives of the academic community came together to clarify the most pressing issues facing the criminal justice system of Ukraine today.

On 12 September 2024, a delegation of lawyers from France and Moldova visited the National University “Odesa Law Academy”:
- Isabelle Clanet Dit Lamanit - President of the Bar Council of the Hauts-de-Seine region in Paris
- Marie-Aimée Peyron - Chairman of the International Relations Committee of the French Bar Council
- Marie-Pascale Piot - attorney at law at Ernst & Young (France)
- Colin Bernier - attorney at law at Ernst & Young (France)
- Vincent Maurel - attorney at law, partner at KPMG (France)
- Frédéric Santini - attorney at law at CRTD (France)
- Stéphane Dunikowski - attorney at law (France)
- Alexander Turcan - Chairman of the Bar Council of Chisinau (Moldova)

During the 2023-2024 academic year, Professor of the Department of Civil Law, Doctor of Law Kateryna Nekit successfully completed a one-year research and teaching internship at the University of Mannheim (Germany) (https://www.institut-fuer-mittelstandsforschung.de/kos/WNetz?art=Person.show&id=344). The internship included teaching and research activities.

In the first semester, Professor Nekit delivered a course of lectures on ‘Legal Regulation of Digital Assets’, which became an innovative training module for international students of the University of Mannheim. The course covered topical issues of legal regulation of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs, AI-generated data and social media, as well as digital inheritance issues. The lectures were aimed at explaining the concepts of digital assets and property, analysing modern approaches to protecting the rights of digital asset owners, and studying legislative approaches to digital property in Europe and the United States.

We are pleased to announce that the National University "Odesa Law Academy" has signed an agreement with the University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain).

For many years, the National University "OJA" has been cooperating with international organizations and higher education institutions. The teachers of our university regularly undergo advanced training in higher education institutions in Europe. In its turn, the National University "Odesa Law Academy" accepts foreign professors for internships.

UACES (University Association for Contemporary European Studies) is a global membership organisation for scholars, students and practitioners interested in all aspects of Europe and the European Union. The main activities of UACES include:

- Organising events and conferences

- Providing funding for research activities

- Collaboration in the publication of books and journals

- Supporting a number of research networks

On 15 November 2024, at the initiative of the Head of the International Relations Department Daria Minchenko and with the support of the President of the University Sergii Kivalov, Stefano Maffei, Professor of the University of Parma (Italy) and founder of the English for Law and International Transactions projects, visited the National University of Odesa Law Academy.

Stefano delivered an interactive film lecture ‘O.J. Simpson - the trial of the century’ for students and faculty of the National University of Odesa Law Academy, during which the audience watched fragments of a documentary about the investigation of one of the most high-profile criminal cases in the history of the modern United States.

The National University ‘Odesa Law Academy is proud to announce that Doctor of Law, Professor Iryna Smaznova, Head of the Department of Philosophy, has been selected as a Robert J. James Fellow for the academic year 2023-2024 as part of a group of fifty fellows from the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (USA). (https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/people/iryna-smaznova)

During this period, Iryna Smaznova worked on a monograph entitled Violence and Tolerance: Philosophical and Legal Perspectives. Her research is aimed at exploring the complex relationship between violence and tolerance, which has proven to be much more multifaceted than previously thought. Professor Smaznova researches the philosophy of media practices and the philosophical and legal aspects of violence and tolerance and is the author of more than 50 publications in this field.

From 1 to 13 July 2024, the academic staff and students of the National University "Odesa Law Academy" took part in the annual Summer School of European Private Law, annually organised by the Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Salzburg, Doctor of Law, Professor Michael Rainer in cooperation with the European Law Institute.

The participants were offered a rich programme of lectures on the legal systems of England, Italy, Austria, Germany, Japan, Croatia, Slovenia, Brazil, France, Switzerland, Estonia, Turkey, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada, Argentina, Portugal, South Africa, Malta, Scotland, Ukraine, China, Bulgaria, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Louisiana (USA), Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Other highlights included meetings with Austrian Minister of Justice Alma ZADIĆ and European Commissioner Johannes HAHN, lectures on Scandinavian law, OHADA Law (Africa), European tort law and European Union law.

In April 2020, Robert Spano, a lawyer from Iceland, was elected as the new President of the European Court of Human Rights, who took office on 18 May 2020. President of the National University "Odesa Law Academy" Sergiy Kivalov congratulated the new President on his appointment.