Enthusiastic law students attending the ‘Drafting School on International Contract Law and Dispute Resolution’.
Ukraine
The success of our “Drafting School on International Contract Law and Dispute Resolution” last year convinced us of its value. We were therefore delighted to repeat this format in September 2026, once again giving young lawyers the opportunity to gain practical insights into, amongst other things, the practice of arbitration.
Together with our partners, the German Institute of Arbitration (DIS) and Jagiellonian University, we were able to almost double the number of participants in Kraków compared with the previous year: 31 enthusiastic law students from Ukraine and Poland took part this time. For us, this is a clear sign that word has spread amongst the next generation of lawyers about just how much they can learn here regarding international trade law, the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, arbitration, mediation and the drafting of relevant legal texts.
Once again this year, the well-established team of lecturers (Prof Dr Stefan Kröll, Katja Kröll, Dr Maciej Durbas, Alicja Zilińska-Eisen, Dr Joseph Schwartz, Tobias Strecker, Prof Dr Malgorzata Kozuch and, new to the team, Florian Cahn) impressed with a programme that closely integrates theory and the practical application of the law. Through interactive lectures, workshops and practical exercises, students were able not only to practise drafting legal documents but also to specifically develop their negotiation and advocacy skills.
You can find lively insights into these exciting five days in Kraków on our Instagram account!
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine organises regular online events on issues of constitutional jurisdiction, aimed not only at specialists but also at the general public. The format of these events was developed by Ukrainian Constitutional Court judge Halyna Yurovska and is implemented in cooperation with the National School of Judges of Ukraine. IRZ participates regularly and sends a speaker, whose presentations are subsequently published on the Constitutional Court’s website in Ukrainian .
The series kicked off on 26 February 2026 with a lecture by the President of the Constitutional Court and the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Lars Brocker, on the topic of ‘The Alliance between the Constitutional Court and Administrative Jurisdiction’. The focus was on the question of when a public-law dispute is of a constitutional nature and when it belongs before the administrative courts. Using recent decisions, he explained the demarcation of competences.
On 12 March 2026, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Susanne Baer, Professor at Humboldt University of Berlin and former Judge of the Federal Constitutional Court, addressed the question “How do we protect democracy?”. Drawing on the practice of the Federal Constitutional Court, she examined how judicial decisions can help to promote social consensus, for example in areas such as climate protection or freedom of expression.
On 9 April 2026, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Brocker will continue the series with a second lecture (Protection of Fundamental Rights through the Increasing Constitutionalisation of Administrative Law), and the series will conclude on 7 May 2026 with a lecture by former Federal Constitutional Court judge Prof. Dr. Udo Steiner on the topic “Sports Law and Constitutional Law”.
The lecture series forms part of the long-standing professional exchange with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, a key partner institution of IRZ, and serves to strengthen the rule of law and to communicate the fundamentals of constitutional law to the public.
The Criminal Code Working Group of the Legal Reform Commission with German experts in Bonn
Ukraine
The Criminal Code Working Group of the Legal Reform Commission of the President of Ukraine recently met for a week in Bonn. IRZ has been advising its Ukrainian partners on the reform of their Criminal Code since 2021.
After written expert opinions and several online technical discussions, first on the general part and then on the specific part of the draft reform, the working group members now met with the German experts in person for the first time. In accordance with Ukraine's wishes, the working meeting focused on the regulations on financial crimes and corruption offenses, as well as on the possibilities and methods of recovery and confiscation.
The working group wanted to consult with its German colleagues on the extent to which the draft bill already implements the relevant EU directives and where there is room for improvement. The experts had already prepared written statements on this subject in the summer. Emeritus Prof Dr Thomas Weigend, University of Cologne, and Prof Dr Dr h.c. Bernd Heinrich, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, discussed the relevant passages of the draft Criminal Code at the beginning of the working week. The working group then spent two days engaged in in-depth internal work on the text, before returning to the experts at the end of the week to discuss any questions that had arisen. This format of concrete collaboration on the text has proven to be very effective and successful over the many years of IRZ's work.
The conference opened with a minute's silence in memory of Prof. Dr Robert Esser, University of Passau, who died unexpectedly on November 19, 2025, and who had written one of the three expert reports and had also wanted to participate in this professional exchange. The participants remembered him with sadness and gratitude.
