By Kyiv Post
Copyright kyivpost
A groundbreaking partnership between Legal experts from Ukraine’s Constitutional Court joined academics from the Department of Constitutional Law at Ivan Franko National University Lviv and the University of Birmingham Law School has led to the creation of the revised English Ukrainian Rule of Law Dictionary that removes historic Russian influence from within Ukraine’s current constitutional law.
It was announced on Tuesday that the project, which contains approved definitions for over 1,000 legal terms used in Ukraine, has been shortlisted alongside five other UK universities for 2025’s “International Collaboration of the Year” at the 2025 “THE Awards” – which celebrates and acknowledges worldwide academic collaboration – with the winner to be announced in Edinburgh on Nov. 13.
Professor Lisa Webley, Chair in Legal Education and Research at the Birmingham Law School, responding to the nomination, said: “I’m delighted to learn we are finalists for International Collaboration of the Year at THE Awards 2025.”
She went on to add “This has been a wonderful opportunity for Birmingham Law School students to be involved in shaping the material that Ukrainian lawyers refer to when considering fundamental legal concepts. It has brought home to us all what a vital role our understanding of key legal terms plays in a well-functioning legal system.”
The project involved 35 students in Birmingham Law School alongside colleagues from the Departments of Public Law and for Foreign Languages for the Humanities and their fellow students at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, colleagues at the O.O. Potebnia Institute of Linguistics of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.
The dictionary has been created to remove any historical Russian influence from Ukraine’s law and make it more constitutionally robust considering Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the resulting war.
Professor Olena Boryslavska Head of the Department of Constitutional Law at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv said: “The correct translation of legal terms may be a small but essential step towards restoring the true meaning of concepts crucial to the rule of law and human rights.”
The dictionary includes definitions for terms previously based on Russian law, such as the rule of law, parliamentary control, false imprisonment, Executive Privilege, and dissent.
This was not just a simple definition and translation process from English to Ukrainian or Ukrainian to English. Technical linguists translated and defined each term with input from Ukrainian legal scholars using key legal sources to illustrate its correct use in practice.
The ‘International Collaboration of the Year’ award recognizes exceptional, “strategic level” projects or joint ventures between a UK or Irish institution and one or more international partners and focuses on collaborations at a strategic level.
The University of Birmingham is ranked one of the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
More information on the five other projects shortlisted alongside the dictionary can be found here.
