SPECIALIZATION OF LAWYERS OF UKRAINE UNDER WAR CONDITIONS: STATUS AND PROSPECTS FOR DEVELOPMENT
Authors:   Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Khotynska-Nor Oksana , Denysyuk Roman ,   Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
Published: March 2023

The article provides a study of the influence of the martial law introduced in Ukraine on the development of the specialization of the lawyer's activity. The authors set a goal to characterize the current state of the development of the specialization of the lawyer's activity under war conditions in Ukraine and to outline its prospects, taking into account the requirements and consequences of the state of war. To achieve it, the general dialectical method of cognition, methods of systematic and selective analysis, synthesis of information, as well as the comparative method that is necessary for the study of foreign experience on the issues considered in the publication were used. It is noted that under the conditions of war, a new challenge for lawyers has become the need to quickly respond to changes in the demand for lawyer services, which is based on large-scale migration processes, complex economic realities, and a significant shift from "peaceful civilianism towards war-related criminal practice." The demand for legal services related to the areas of tax law, criminal law, bankruptcy, agrarian and land law is predicted. However, in the opinion of the authors, in the long run, the specialization in the legal profession, caused by the conditions of martial law, should be considered more globally, particularly in the context of the idea of the development of the military justice system, in which the legal profession should take its proper place. To substantiate this thesis, the experience of NATO member states (using the example of the USA) and Israel is cited. As a result, it has been concluded that the war causes transformations in the legal profession, as well as in all other spheres of society's life. Therefore, for lawyers who are in a state of forced professional reorientation, the well-known life wisdom: "If one door closes, another one opens" is worth recalling. At the same time, it was emphasized that the absence of a balanced system of military justice in a warring country is a "nonsense" and a direct threat to national security. The Defense Security Forces of Ukraine currently number one million people and this number will only grow (we do not count retired military personnel, family members of military personnel who also need legal assistance). Military business is a rather specific and dangerous profession that requires a lawyer to have a set of specific knowledge, abilities, skills, and even logics of thinking. Separately, one should think about the issues of whether the lawyer has a military rank, one's compliance with other requirements that would give the access to documents containing state secrets, the ability to travel to the front line of hostilities and without problems to go to military facilities for the effective protection of rights and interests of their clients, etc. All this requires careful analysis and well-considered decisions, which collectively outline the future prospects for scientific exploration.