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Děkanát PrF Veveří 70 611 80 Brno tel. 41 559, fax. 41 213 162 |
FACULTY OF LAW
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Děkanát PrF Veveří 70 611 80 Brno tel. 41 559, fax. 41 213 162 |
The year 1997 was marked by the continuation of a tendency towards the considerable increase of the quality of the teaching process and its internationalization. Academic research performed at the Faculty brought excellent results.
In the educational sphere, the reform of legal studies which started in the academic year 1996/1997 continued. The transformation of block (complex) exams and of the final master's state exams was completed. The introduction of a whole range of new academic subjects contributed to the increased level of difficulty of legal studies and to the higher prestige of the Faculty's graduates. In the Faculty's teaching, a number of teachers from foreign universities were involved. The introduction of new subjects was supported by the Educational Foundation of Jan Hus, and this through its contacts with foreign lectors and material help. This academic year, alongside the master's degree course in "Law", a three-year specialised bachelor's course in the legal relations of immovable assets and the theory and practice of preparatory prosecution was opened. At the present time, the Faculty of Law has 2,116 undergraduates (175 of which are from abroad) enrolled on the master's course and 71 on the bachelor's course.
At the Faculty, there are 174 postgraduates (2 of which are internal students). In this most demanding type of study, the Faculty focuses on the continuous increasing of the level of study difficulty and motivates postgraduates to achieve the best academic resultes.
In spite of the fact that the Faculty of Law has not yet introduced a systematic education in foreign languages, a semester-long lecture series took place for the second year presented by teachers of faculties of law in Paris, this year on "Selected Legal Issues in the European Union" (interpreted into Czech). For the implementation of the basic course in European Union Law, the Faculty was granted the "Jean Monnet Course" grant from the EU Commission.
Creative academic work was carried out in the form of eight grant projects. Academic results were published (two of which abroad) in 23 monographs written by Faculty teachers. 174 original academic and professional articles (contributions included in festschrifts) were published. Last year the Faculty again published two yearbooks (Orbis Iuris Romani and the European Law Yearbook) and also the professional legal journal. Creative academic activities of Faculty members are shown in their qualification growth: two teachers defended successfully their post-doctoral thesis for an associate professorship and four lecturers completed postgraduate doctoral studies and obtained the title of Dr.
The application of academic expertise in practice is implemented mainly in the form of the processing of expert reports for state authorities and of teachers' participation in the legislative work of constitutional bodies. The Faculty also organizes a great number of lectures for the wider expert and lay public.
Concerning teaching materials, 42 textbooks were published (one of which abroad) in the course of last year, thus providing all disciplines with high-quality teaching texts.
Conferences and professional seminars are a direct form of academic communication. In 1997, the Faculty of Law held 7 conferences, and members of the Faculty participated in 15 conferences and seminars, six at home and nine abroad, at which 12 contributions were presented.
International contacts in the fields of academic research and education developed very successfully. As every year, a Czech-American conference was held with the participation of a group of teachers from the John Marshall Law School of Chicago, this time focusing on a comparison of Czech and American Law in the fields of constitutional and inheritance law. The conference on contractual freedom was a further joint event; a voluminous festschrift was published containing contributions presented at the conference.
The Faculty of Law welcomed a total of 65 guests from abroad, the majority of whom held an academic lecture in the course of their stay. Members of the Faculty went on 38 study stays abroad.
The number of undergraduates increased in 1997, and a total of 57 students visited institutes of higher education abroad, either for short-term courses or long-term study stays. Ten of our students participated in the Summer School of European Law held by the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris XI as part of a project under the TEMPUS programme.
