The textbook "Introduction to Ukrainian Law", published by "C.H. Beck" under editorship of Wieser/Lazur/Bilash in 2020, has won the first prize for the best textbook in 2020 in the category "Pidručnyk, opublikovanyj v zarubižnych vydannjach na oficijnych movach Jevropejs‘kogo Sojuzu" (textbooks in foreign publishing houses in one of the official languages of the EU) - covering all faculties of the University of Uzhgorod.
The textbook project was initiated by the Centre for East European Law and Eurasian Studies (CEELES) at the University of Graz and afterwards successfully implemented under the supervision of Univ.-Prof. DDr. Dr. h.c. Bernd Wieser in cooperation with the Law Faculty of the University of Uschgorod (Ukraine). In Graz, the assistance work within the framework of this textbook project was carried out by Inga Zelena. More details about the project implementation were described in a recent interview (https://www.uzhnu.edu.ua/uk/news/-Einfhrung-in-das-ukrainische-Recht-2021.htm) by Ass.-Prof. Oleksandr Bilash, who is a prominent scientist in law and a theologian both domestically and internationally (primarily due to his continuous activity as a visiting professor at Charles University in Prague as well as a deputy dean for international relations at the Law Faculty of the University of Uzhgorod).
The textbook, published in volume 213 of the series " JuS: Schriftenreihe der Juristischen Schulung (Series of Legal Training)", contributes to the understanding of the peculiarities of Ukrainian law in the German-speaking professional world. Positive feedback is evidenced by reviews by Prof. Yarmysh (Herald of Kyiv University of Jurisprudence of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine), Prof. Gavrylenko (Journal of Uzhgorod University, Series: Jurisprudence) and publications in Austria, Germany and Ukraine (Newsletter of the German-Ukrainian Lawyers Association). In terms of content, the textbook covered all areas of Ukrainian public and private law, as well as procedural law.
In Austria, the official presentation of the textbook took place on December 4, 2020 (at the University of Graz), coinciding with the ZOR opening and within the framework of the International Symposium "Reforms of Ukrainian Law: Current Development", organized by the German-Ukrainian Lawyers Association together with the CEELES, the University of Uzhgorod and the National University of Chernivtsi. The presentation of the book in Ukraine was carried out within the framework of the XIII International Conference "Transcarpathian Law Readings" on May 27, 2021.
The success of the textbook is attributed to the book author team, which includes Bernd Wieser, Jaroslav Lazur, Oleksandr Bilash and some other authors-legal scholars. It is noteworthy that the Faculty of Law of Christian Albrechts University in Kiel (Germany) has introduced a special course "Introduction to Ukrainian Law from a Comparative Perspective", in the framework of which the textbook "Introduction to Ukrainian Law" is already used.
Further cooperation will be carried out together with professors of the University of Uzhgorod within the framework of a new project "Special Administrative Law of Ukraine" under the supervision of Univ.-Prof. DDr. Dr. h.c. Bernd Wieser, whereby a German-language as well as a Ukrainian-language textbook is to be published in 2022. The use of the new textbook in the course for students at the University of Uzhgorod is also planned.
