Mg. Jur., lector of HSTT,
member of Union of Latvian Lawyers, Barba Girgensone 

Proposals for Master programme of development on European and International right in Eastern Europe – InterEULawEast

1.                  Considering aim and purposes of project «Master programme of development on European and International right in Eastern Europe – InterEULawEast» which include creation of innovative and unified study plan and internationalization of study process using interdisciplinary approach, it is necessary to claim that the basis for master programme European and international right in Eastern Europe can be formed using the programme offered by Ukrainian partners.

This programme is characterized by a well-thought structure, which includes vertical and horizontal correlation between the courses and the first and the second years of studies; proposed course syllabus appears to apply interdisciplinary approach. We can agree with the opinion of Professor R. Knez, who states that the course structure of the first year is to be accepted.

The course structure of the second year provokes several questions:

      1.1.optional courses should be enlarged with such subjects as “International protection of intellectual property”, “International aspects of bankruptcy”, “Legal framework of anti-corruption expertise procedures”;

      1.2.it is advised to offer 3 optional courses to the second semester and 6 courses to the third semester (each on comprises of 3 ECTS), however the reality shows that it is more efficient to offer the choice for modules, when the freedom of choice can be restricted with 2-3 courses of 3-4 modules, which allows to control interdisciplinary sequence and the amount of students in groups.

2.                  As far as Russian legislative requirements on higher education are totally different from Ukrainian legislative requirements on higher education while requirements on Bologna system are also specific in terms of process and volumes of studies, the compromise for the following questions should be found:

    2.1.Legislation of Ukraine states that 1 ECTS = 30 hours, legislation of Russia states that 1 ECTS = 25-30 hours, Bologna standards claim that 1 ECTS = 30 hours, which implies that Russia has to adjust its system to 1 ECTS = 30 hours.

   2.2 the question on 120 ECTS in master studies is unanimous from the point of legislation, the length of studies is 2 years (4 semesters)

   2.3.Russian legislation strongly demands theoretical, empirical and pre-thesis internship of at least 24 ECTS (9 ECTS for theoretical, 9 ECTS for empirical and 6 ECTS for pre-thesis internship) included into the programme. As far as Ukrainian legislation does not imply any special requirements on internship and Bologna system leaves this question for the national legislation though agrees on internship being an essential part of the course contents, master programme «European and International right in Eastern Europe – InterEULawEast» must have internship of 24 ECTS.

   2.4.the same rule applies to the final state attestation which is mandatory in Russia, but optional in Ukrainian legislation and is not demanded by Bologna system either, which leads master programme «European and International right in Eastern Europe – InterEULawEast» to the necessity of having final state attestation (exam) – 6 ECTS.

  2.5.according to the attitude of Russian and Ukrainian legislation as well as Bologna process to production and defense of scientific-research thesis in the framework of mater programme «European and International right in Eastern Europe – InterEULawEast», it should occupy 24 ECTS.

  2.6.Russian legislation strongly demands courses (disciplines) to be split into basic and elective parts (or mandatory and optional) with the proportion of 1/3, considering that the volume of mandatory courses in ECTS should be larger than the volume of optional courses. The same rule applies to Ukrainian legislation and Bologna process, but there is no information claimed on the manner of course choice presentation and how many ECTS are given for the mandatory or optional course.

However, summing up the fore-mentioned information on organizational issues we come up with the following:

1 semester –           four mandatory courses (6 ECTS each),

theoretical internship (6 ECTS).

2 semester –           three mandatory courses (6 ECTS each),

three optional courses (3 ECTS each),

empirical internship (9 ECTS).

3 semester –           two mandatory courses (6 ECTS each),

six optional courses (3 ECTS each),

pre-thesis internship (9 ECTS).

4 semester —         production and defense of scientific-research thesis (24 ECTS)

and state final attestation (6 ECTS).

3.                  In order to understand the structure of the programme offered by Russian partners, we were to form the tables with the lists of mandatory and optional programme subjects compared to ECTS offered by Russian partners, assuming that 1 ECTS = 30 hours. Due to such arithmetical aspects and information on ECTS from Russian websites with reference to already accredited and available for the students programme, it is not clear how the second semester of the programme is performed. Therefore the following questions arise:

    3.1.In case the aim and objectives of the project « Master programme of development on European and International right in Eastern Europe – InterEULawEast» which include the creation of innovative and unified study plan and internationalization of study process using interdisciplinary approach, is it adequate to stress the «mandatory courses» in the programme which students follow during bachelor studies. The question is especially concerned with the study of foreign languages that can be organized in a different way. We can agree with professor H. Khorak and professor R. Knez upon the idea that the first semester is to have priority mandatory subjects, such as “European constitutional and institutional right”, “European right of internal market”, “Competition right in the EU and Russian Federation”, “European private law” (all the mentioned courses should have 6 ECTS). In order to reinforce the theoretical basis a 6 ECTS theoretical internship with defense takes place at the end of the course. Second semester is advised to include such mandatory subjects as “Relevant problems of international right”, “International banking law”, “European customs and tax law” (all the mentioned courses should have 6 ECTS). Third semester should include such mandatory subjects as “Right of intellectual property in the EU and Russian Federation”, International labour law”” (all the mentioned courses should have 6 ECTS).

    3.2.Due to the fact that there is no description of course syllabus yet, planning of lectures, seminars, consultations and required hours for individual work is unclear. According to the available information, more than significant number of hours would be dedicated to individual work, which is proportionally controversial regarding the amount of lectures.

   3.3.The check form of the master programme is not only exam, but also pass-fail tests, which can influence the quality of the programme. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Barba Girgensone