Leavitt Institute Projects
The Leavitt Institute has two complementary projects in Ukraine, the Jury Trial Education and Training Initiative and the Council of Justice and Leavitt Institute Lecture Series.Jury Trial Education and Training Initiative
The Constitution of Ukraine guarantees the right to a trial by jury, yet such a trial has never occurred in Ukraine. In Spring, 2006, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declared that by the end of the decade, Ukraine would implement a jury system. The Leavitt Institute's Jury Trial Education and Training Initiative places seasoned American judges, lawyers, and law professors in Ukrainian law schools teaching year long courses on jury theory and practice. The initiative also gives students the opportunity to try their hand in a jury trial competition at the end of the school year. The year long course prepares present and future Ukrainian legal professionals to implement jury trials into the Ukrainian criminal justice system.Council of Justice and Leavitt Institute Lecture Series
On June 5, 2006, The Leavitt Institute signed a cooperation agreement with the Judicial Council of Ukraine--a state body controlled by the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The partnership envisions holding a series of quarterly seminars centered on legal reform in Ukraine. Through the use of quarterly seminars the partners hip between the Council of Justice and The Leavitt Institute will attract current government and other leaders in the field of crim inal justice. We will use the opportunity as a forum to discuss legal reform in the context of a jury system and why it is in the country's best interest to move in that direction.More than mere lectures, the seminars will seek to educate by correlating the jury trial competitions of the student program, giving Ukrainian legal experts the opportunity to view Ukrainian law students filling the essential roles of a jury trial. The lecture series commences in December,2006 and includes events in February and May, 2007.