Educational and Scientific Institute of Law

The Institute of Law was created on the basis of the Faculty of Law.

Classes for the first 35 students of the Faculty of Law began in 1834. They were introduced to the realm of legal science by the first dean of the faculty, Professor Ignatius Danylovych, one of the most educated scientists, who worked on the codification of Polish-Lithuanian laws and, upon arriving in Kyiv in 1834, was appointed to the department of police and criminal laws.

According to the Statute of St. Volodymyr University of Kyiv dated December 25, 1833, the law faculty studied: encyclopedia of law (general systematized review of legislation); basic laws and constitutions of the Russian Empire, laws on the civil status of people in the state; civil laws (general and special), including credit, trade, factory legislation and local (customary) law; criminal legislation; laws of deaconry; laws on public obligations and finances, Roman law and its history. In addition, such a special discipline as ecclesiastical law was also taught.

A feature of the first years of the faculty’s operation was that most of the teachers, in addition to professional education, also had spiritual (religious) education. This created a highly cultural aura of faculty life, full of humanity, high professionalism and Christian spirituality. The first professor at the Faculty of Law in the Department of Roman Law was O. Mickiewicz, the brother of the famous Polish poet A. Mickiewicz, a former teacher of the Volyn Lyceum, who in 1837 was transferred to Kharkiv University.

The Faculty of Law was the first truly legal faculty on the European continent, taking into account that at the time, law faculties mainly taught the science of morality (ethics) and the outdated system of natural and Roman law, civil and criminal laws, judiciary, and in fact only ethical and political faculties existed.

It can be assumed that the initiator of the creation of the Faculty of Law and the main designer of the first plan of its structural construction was M. Speranskyi, most of whose students became professors at the Faculty of Law of Kyiv University: K. Nevolin at the Department of the Encyclopedia of Legislation, S. Bogorodskyi at the Department of Laws of Public Administration and Public Works, S. .Ornatskyi at the Department of Civil Laws, A. Fedotov-Chekhovskyi at the Department of Roman Law instead of Prof. transferred to Kharkiv University. A. Mickiewicz. All of them later became prominent scientists and heads of legal education at St. Volodymyr University.

In April 1837, K. Nevolin, who taught encyclopedias of legislation and Russian state laws at the department, was elected the third rector of the University of St. Volodymyr after Maksymovich and V. Tsykh. In connection with significant administrative burdens, at the request of the academic council of the university, in December 1838, the Minister of Education appointed M. Ivanishev, an adjunct of the Faculty of Law, who later became a favorite student of K. Nevolin, to assist the rector. The latter was not only an excellent head of the university, with whom not only significant innovations in higher education are associated, but also significant scientific developments in the field of legislation. “Encyclopedia of Legislation” by K. Nevolin was the first thorough work that was important for the development of legal education and science and has not lost its importance and relevance in our time.

A prominent figure in the history of the law faculty and university was the dean, and later the rector, professor M. Ivanishev, who substantiated the peculiarities of the national (customary) law of Ukraine in the field of comparative analysis of Slavic legislation, initiated the first public defense of his doctoral dissertation at the law faculty on July 30, 1840 year, created the departments of: financial, international law, history of Slavic legislation, political economy and statistics, had a significant addition to the study of his native land, for twenty years was the editor of legal monuments at the Kyiv Archaeological Commission, contributed to the formation of legal skills of graduates of the Faculty of Nezabytovskyi, O. Romanovych-Slavatynskyi, F. Leontovych, M. Volodymyrskyi-Budanov.