ORIGINS OF IVAN FRANKO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LVIV: SOME DISCUSSION ISSUES (TO THE 360TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT)
Authors: Burdin Volodymyr , Boyko Ihor 
Published: August 2022

The article analyzes and highlights the origins and preconditions of the Lviv University, emphasizes the longevity of educational and scientific academic traditions at the university, shows what were the obstacles for the Ukrainian people of the Middle Ages in the conditions of statelessness to create a national higher education institution, particularly in Lviv. The preconditions and the time of the Faculty of Law foundation are studied, as well as its place and role at the Lviv University are determined. Much attention is focused on the characteristics of two traditions on determining the date of foundation of the Lviv University: the Eastern European tradition, which is based on the royal privilege of 1661; it has a formal character, based on documentary sources; as well as the Western European tradition, which is based on the establishment of the first school of the Western European standard in Lviv, also based on the source documents and international experience. It is substantiated that the formation and development of the first educational institutions in the Western Ukrainian lands, particularly in Lviv, date back to the times of the Galicia-Volyn state, which was the heir and successor of the Kyiv-Rus’ state. One of the first links in the emergence of the elements of university education in Lviv can be considered a parish school founded on November 11, 1372, and later a monastic school, which in 1451 became a cathedral school. The next link in the formation of university education in Lviv in accordance with the Western European tradition was the Lviv Stauropean Fraternal School (1586). Thereafter follow the Lviv Jesuit College (1608), the Academy (1661) as well as the University (1784). Due to the lack of historical sources, we do not have proper historical data about the parish (monastery) school in Lviv in 1372, in particular about its teachers and disciplines read by certain professors, famous graduates, as well as about their own statutes etc. However, we do possess the necessary historical data based on primary sources about the Lviv Fraternal School of 1586, from which, it seems, we can trace the origins of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. It is emphasized that since 1661, the Faculty of Law of «both laws» was envisaged among the four faculties («facultatis») of the Lviv University. In the first period of the Lviv University's existence, the faculties mentioned in the royal privilege began to operate in its structure, including the faculty of «both laws», which trained specialists in canon and Roman law. At that time, the faculties in their modern sense as organizational and educational-scientific units of the university, providing for the creation of departments, did not exist, as the training was conducted according to the program of Jesuit schools, developed in the late XVI century. It is also noted that in the first period of the Lviv University (1661–1773) the following legal studies (courses) were taught at the «both laws» Faculty of Law: basics of Roman law, public law, history of state system, political geography, «natural law», civil law (based on comments to the Justinian Code), the administrative system of European countries. In the process of teaching canon law and the so-called «incidents» - moral theology, certain aspects of criminal law were studied. From 1739, they began to teach the history of law. Teaching was in Latin. Within the framework of educational reforms from the beginning of the XVIII century, at the University of Lviv, a separate professor of canon law was appointed, and later – a professor of Roman law. The teaching system changed under the influence of new socio-economic and political conditions in the Commonwealth and Western Europe. After the annexation of Galicia to the Austrian Empire, a system of state bodies was formed, which required a significant number of qualified civil servants. There were few people willing to go to Lviv or other cities in Galicia and Bukovyna from Vienna or Prague. Based on the urgent need for training for the newly created province of Galicia and Lodomeria personnel of various specialties (government officials, judges, medical teachers, priests, etc.), the Austrian Emperor Joseph II on October 21, 1784 issued a diploma, which formally established and actually restored Lviv University consisting of four faculties (philosophical, law, medical and theological), as well as an academic gymnasium with the same rights for all universities of the state. The created gymnasium served as a base for staffing university students. The training of lawyers, who made up the vast majority of civil servants, as well as judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and notaries in Galicia, was entrusted to the Faculty of Law of the Lviv University. Since then, the Faculty of Law at the Lviv University had been functioning as an organizational and educational-scientific structural unit of the Lviv University, where a certain cycle of related scientific disciplines was taught and the specialists in law were trained, as well as the creation of departments and administration was provided for etc. Unlike other faculties of the Lviv University, the Faculty of Law did not cease its activities, due to the liquidation of the Faculty of Philosophy in 1924 and the Faculty of Theology in 1939, the Faculty of Law is also the oldest faculty of the Ivan Franko University of Lviv.