Department of European and International Law

About the department

The Department of European and International Law was established at the Faculty of Law of Lobachevsky University in spring 1999. In many ways, the Department is a genuine product of EU-Russia cooperation as it has been created thanks to a TEMPUS/TACIS project AGIRR (1998-2001) as one of the first Russian centres on EU legal studies. It was initiated and, until 2014, headed by Doctor of Law, Professor Nadezhda Sidorenko (1947-1919) who led most subsequent international projects implemented at the Faculty of Law.

Thanks to its initially defined internationalised research and training strategy, the Department has quickly become one of the most rapidly developing units at the Faculty of Law. It started with only a few lecturers teaching a small number of general courses, the main ones being Public International Law and European Union Law. Nowadays, it delivers more than 20 modules in European and International Law covering International Public Law, various sub-fields of European Union Law, International Protections of Human Rights, International Migration Law, Eurasian Economic Union Law, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law etc. It implements an MA programme in international law, offers a possibility of double-diploma in cooperation with Grenoble Alpes University (France) and Turan University (Kazakhstan).

After having successfully implemented four TEMPUS/TACIS projects (A.G.I.R.R. (T-JEP-10325-97), Volgadoc (JEP–22196-2001), Bologna-Juris (JEP–25146-2004), Forcondho-Volga (JEP-27043-2006), the Department has become an important centre of competence in EU legal studies. Its contribution to EU studies has been recognised by the European Commission awarding the first Head of the Department, Professor Nadezhda Sidorenko, with Jean Monnet Chair grant in EU law in 2011 (http://euglobe.ru/euglobe-project/jean-monnet-chair-кафедра-жана-монне-2011-2014/).  The Chair working programme spanned teaching, research and dissemination activities throughout three years and engaged both academic and non-academic users of knowledge on the EU in the Nizhny Novgorod region and beyond. In 2015 and 2016, two successful grant applications prepared by Assistant Professor Andrey Leonov resulted in two projects: Jean Monnet Module EUGLOBE (2015-2018) (http://euglobe.ru/euglobe-project/about-the-project/) and Jean Monnet Project EUSECU-POLE (2016-2018) (http://euglobe.ru/jean-monnet-project/). These EU-funded initiatives contributed to the development of BA and MA programmes and related research. They have provided grounds for further collaborative training and research projects with Russian partners (in the Volga Federal District, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Tomsk, Kaliningrad) and EU-based partners (Grenoble, Strasbourg, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Saarbruecken), including joint work on high quality applications for external research funding from both public and private funding bodies from Russia and the EU. Members of the Department also contribute to its development with individual grants and scholarships. Doctor of Law, Professor Nadezhda Sidorenko, Candidate of Law, Associate Professor Svetlana Kuznetsova and Assistant Professor Andrey Leonov received mobility grants as invited professors at Grenoble-Alpes University. Candidate of Law, Associate Professor Yuliya Orlova obtained individual mobility funding from the European Commission. Andrey Leonov received several scholarships from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a prestigious invited fellowship from the “Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe” with residence in Lausanne (Switzerland).

The Department is actively involved in continuous research and educational projects and assures successful follow-up of implemented projects contributing to development of teaching and research networks on International and European Law in Russia and across the European and Eurasian Research Areas.

The structure of the department includes 11 workers: 1 Professor, 5 Associate Professors, 1 Assistant Professor, 1 Senior Lecturer, 1 Educational Master of 1 class and a Record Manager.

Leader

The head of the department is Aleksandr Gorylev, Candidate of Law, Associate Professor, The head of the center for international projects and programs.

The sphere of scientific interests: Constitutional law of the Russian Federation, international law and international judicial institutions, problems of modern parliamentarism.

Science

The Department conducts research work: teachers participate in international, all-Russian, regional scientific conferences and participate in international projects. Each member of the department works under certain scientific direction and has its own scientific interests.

Marina Kasatkina is a research assistant. She focuses on FinTech, RegTech and blockchain generally. Her current scientific interests include cryptocurrencies, legal regulation of digital assets and initial coins offerings (ICO).

Currently, she is working on a PhD dissertation on the topic «Regulation of Initial Coin Offering. A Comparative Study of the EU and the USA» under the supervision of the professor from the Maastricht University (Netherlands). The topic was elaborated during the studying in the Turin University (UNITO), which was completed by obtaining an LLM degree in Law.

Emil Karakulyan is a Candidate of Law, Associate Professor, Member of program “GLOBAL JUSTICE/INJUSTICE” (https://justiceglobale.wordpress.com/membres/membres-members/), Member of Russian branch of International law Association and Nizhny Novgorod Reginal Brunch of the Association of European studies.

His sphere of scientific interests: International law, theory, history and philosophy of international law, international legal doctrines, theory, institutes and law of integration process, European construction, law of the European Union, legal personality of the European Union

Andrey Leonov is an Assistant Professor at the Department of European and International Law, Faculty of Law, Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod (Russia). Invited Professor at Grenoble Alpes University (2019-2020).

Member of the International Law Association. Member of the Council of Jean Monnet Foundation in Lausanne (Switzerland).

He is also coordinator of the Jean Monnet Module “The European Union as a Global Human Rights Actor”  (EUGLOBE) (2015-2018) (http://euglobe.ru/euglobe-project/) and the Jean Monnet Project “EU Approaches to Transnational Security Challenges: Focus on Policy Learning” (EUSECU-POLE) (2016–2018) (http://euglobe.ru/eusecu-pole-project/).

His current research interests focus mainly on International migration law, European Union migration law and policies, migration regime in post-soviet space and in the EAEU, European human rights law, interaction between international and national law.

Full list of papers is available at http://euglobe.ru/research-published/.

Yuliya Orlova is a Candidate of Law, Associate Professor and Deputy Dean for Educational activity.

She used to visit nearly eight internships at University Stendhal Grenoble 3 (France), University Pierre Mendès France (France), Brussel Libre University (Belgium), International Training Centre for Human Rights and Peace Teaching.

The sphere of scientific interests: social law of the European Union, internal market law of the European Union, competition law of the European Union, integration law.

Structure