Judicial Reasoning in Post-Soviet Countries: Towards Paradigmatic Shifts in Legal Culture and Mentality?

Date
-
Event Sponsor
CREEES Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
Location
Encina Hall West, Room 219

The processes of post-Soviet transformation, which include integration into the international community and regional organizations, declaration of adherence to the rule of law and international standards of human rights protection, require a strong judiciary capable of adequately reacting to the challenges of a new social reality. Being part of the international legal orders, judges in post-Soviet states today have to apply the provisions of the constitution, the sources of international and supranational law, case-law and judicial precedents, and to employ new interpretative methods and tools. This requires well-developed methodological skills of judicial reasoning based on an adequate philosophical/theoretical approach to the concept of law. However, in most post-Soviet countries, judicial reasoning is still underdeveloped and paradigmatic shifts in the legal thinking of judges have yet to occur. Anna Khvorostiankina will discuss the institutional and cultural factors that affect the development of judicial reasoning in post-Soviet countries comparing the cases of Ukraine and Armenia.

Anna Khvorostiankina is Associate Professor of Law at the Law School of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine) and UNESCO Chair of Human Rights, Democracy and European Studies of Yerevan State University of Languages and Social Sciences (Armenia).

She received her Ph.D. in Legal Theory from the Legislation Institute of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (2012); a Second Level Masters in “Advanced Studies in European and Transnational Law” from University of Trento, Italy (2006); and an LL.M. from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine (2005). Anna lectures on Constitutional Law, Legal Theory and the History of Legal Thought, and EU Law. In Yerevan, she teaches “Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law in Post-Soviet Space” within the Jean Monnet module in European Union Studies. Her research focuses on the processes of Europeanization of post-Soviet legal systems; recent developments in judicial argumentation in post-Soviet countries; post-communist constitutional identities and particularities of the rule of law in the countries in transition.

Contact Phone Number