Publication date: 22.01.2024
Lawyer, graduated from the National University "Odesa Law Academy" with honors. Since 2017, I have been specializing in legal and educational and general legal issues. I am the author of legal articles, scientific publications and articles in the educational environment. Mentor of the "Veritas" legal clinic. The owner of the legal blog "Educational_law_ua" on Instagram.
In the conditions of martial law, our legislative body continues to work actively.
- Thus, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recently registered bill 10312, which immediately became a hot topic for discussion among lawyers and people who plan to become lawyers.
- We are talking about a project that involves making changes to the current legislation in the field of advocacy.
- Thus, the deputies propose to make changes concerning the level of education for persons who plan to practice law.
- Let's talk about this in more detail. Our written consultation will help to understand the essence of the new bill in more detail.
- And in case of questions, contact the legal marketplace "Consultant", where experts in the field of law will help you solve any legal issues.
So, the draft law proposes to change approaches to who can be a lawyer.
- Thus, according to such a project, it is proposed that in order to become a lawyer, an individual must have a higher education, but only with a master's degree, not a specialist, and on the basis of a bachelor's degree in law.
- In addition, such a person must speak the state language at a certain level and have at least 2 years of experience in the legal field.
- Also, in order to become a lawyer according to the new draft law, one should pass a qualification exam and undergo a relevant internship, take a lawyer's oath and obtain a certificate that gives the right to practice law.
- However, it should be said that, along with these events, the National Association of Lawyers of Ukraine already expressed a certain opinion on this matter.
- Thus, it was noted that in certain cases, good new ideas that should be introduced at the legislative level can be embodied in draft laws with certain defects in the rule-making technique.
- As a result, after the adoption of these laws, the application of such norms may cause problems in the future. It can be problems with an ambiguous understanding of norms that are expressed in different ways in different laws, these are legal disputes, and other issues that will require many clarifications.
Such a problem also applies to this draft law 10312. Thus, the NAAU committee determined that it is proposed to introduce a requirement for obtaining not "full higher education" but "acquiring higher education at the degree of master's degree" in the requirement to acquire the status of a lawyer. In this way, NAAU was reminded of the norm of Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine "On Advocacy and Advocacy", which defines that a full higher legal education is considered to be such an education that was obtained in Ukraine or outside of it, in accordance with the procedure established by law.
Thus, NAAU reminded that the new norms of the draft law must correspond to the norm of Article 6 of the above-mentioned law, and the definition of a "mandatory master's degree" for practicing law contradicts the branch law in the field of advocacy and even affects the norms of higher education.
Taking this into account, the advocacy committee proposes to return such a draft law for revision, and to include such norms in it, which are already defined by the Law of Ukraine "On Advocacy and Advocacy" and do not create collisions between regulatory and legal acts.
