Methodological foundations of legal education reform in Ukraine: Scientific paradigm and modern context

Abstract

The study investigates the current state and defines the methodological foundations for improving the practical training of lawyers in the context of reforming legal education by establishing the features of legal regulation of legal education and its role in the state system, identifying the main problems of modern legal education, as well as analysing foreign experience in practical training of specialists in the field of law. The study uses general scientific and special legal methods of scientific cognition, including comparative legal, philosophical and functional methods, dialectical and formal legal methods of cognition, method of analysis and synthesis. The paper established that the professional training of future specialists in the field of law is currently described by a disparity between the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of law graduates, which complicates their adaptation to practical work. The authors of this study proved that the reform of the legal training system through increasing its practical orientation, determining the state needs of legal personnel of various educational levels, internationalisation of higher education, introduction of new specialisations in accordance with the needs of various spheres of legal practice, should become the basis for the development of legal education in Ukraine. Attention was focused on the need to optimise the system of training legal personnel mainly through the introduction of new teaching methods, the approval of new educational standards, considering the corresponding progressive foreign experience in this field, provided that the accumulated experience, traditions, and principles of Ukrainian higher legal education are preserved, thereby ensuring the development of future specialists with stable practical skills of law enforcement activities. It was found that in the context of the reform of legal education, it is important to establish such requirements for the educational process that would ensure that students master not only a minimum amount of knowledge, but also practical skills because practical training of students is a mandatory component of the educational and professional programme for obtaining an educational degree. In particular, it is necessary to reorient the content and orientation of educational works of applicants for legal education, which should be focused not only on repeating or reproducing theoretical material, but also on solving specially developed practical situations. The issue of increasing the duration of internships and effective cooperation between educational institutions and employers is also important. Improving the effectiveness of training specialists in the field of law through a proportional ratio of theoretical and practical content of the educational process in legal specialities is aimed at modernising the higher legal education model in Ukraine