Basic Chairs at ASU: Law Department

“There are two basic chairs at our Department now: the Basic Chair of Children’s Right Protection and the Basic Chair of Competition Law.

The Basic Chair of Children’s Right Protection has been established upon the initiative of Ms. Medina Torbina, Children’s Rights Commissioner in Astrakhan Region. Thanks to support of our University administration and to our long-lasting relations with Ms. Torbina, we had no organizational setbacks while establishing this Basic Chair. This initiative has been approved at a higher level as well. Not long ago Astrakhan State University was visited by Dr. Pavel Astakhov, Children’s Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation: he talked with our management and with Deans, including me. As he says, children’s rights protection is of not just social nature, but also of legal nature. Unfortunately, many children are unaware of their rights, that’s why they often get stuck in difficult situations and they can’t find a way out. That’s why it’s so crucial now to explain to young citizens what their rights are. Besides social and legal training, research supervision of diploma projects and course papers, and practical trainings for our students, this Basic Chair will promote this knowledge.

The Basic Chair of Competition Law has been established on the base of the Astrakhan Regional Directorate of the Federal Antimonopoly Service; the Directorate is headed by Mr. Nikolay Merkulov. We wanted to develop this field long ago, as we represent public institutions that are adjacent to the Antimonopoly Service. This Basic Chair is also a base to arrange students’ practical training and civil servants’ professional retraining (this function is performed by the Center of Legal Consultancy – a unit of the Antimonopoly Service). Besides, our Department can act as one of the developers of legal activities that the Antimonopoly Service performs: some of our diploma projects will be developed to meet orders placed by the Service.

Thus, the two Basic Chairs are certainly a mutually feasible field of cooperation to be developed further. We’ve already gained pretty good results of our joint work: our students are trained by practicing professionals; they make contacts with their potential employers; our faculty learns experts’ experience in the field of law; staff of external organizations can now test techniques of working with citizens on the base of our University; they can also cover a retraining program that our University delivers. All these facts confirm that the quality of training future lawyers at our Department is at the right level.