In the Fall Semester of 2022, Invisible University for Ukraine launched a scholarship program aiming to support the research of students from Ukrainian universities with research grants provided by the Open Society University Network, with co-funding from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). Since then, the program helped 102 students with mentoring and financial support. Receiving feedback from mentors and peers within small mentoring groups, the students improved their argumentative capacities and opened new questions and approaches for themselves and their research. Assistance offered by the mentors and CEU Center for Academic Writing also helped them to express their thoughts thoroughly using the tools of Academic English. Some IUfU participants have already transformed the research papers they worked on during the past two semesters into articles that are published in leading Ukrainian journals. In this overview, we present a few of the articles that were developed in this program and published in journals outside of it, opening a series of texts dedicated to student research within the IUfU framework.
Khoma, Vsevolod. “Capabilities Approach And the Marxist Interpretation of the Political Conception of Justice: Reflections on the After-War Restoration Of Ukraine.” Filosofska Dumka, no. 2 (2023): 187–199.
https://doi.org/10.15407/fd2023.02.187
Abstract
Marxism, as a normative position, is critical of liberalism. However, the problems of justice and alienation that Marxism draws attention to can be solved by liberalism without implementing a Marxist political project. The aims to substantiate the statement that Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach (one of the versions of political liberalism) is a more inclusive and rational method of theorizing about the basic principles of justice than Marxism. By analyzing Elizabeth Anderson’s theory of liberal egalitarianism, “democratic equality,” I show that some Marxist approaches that (1) do not deny the existence of justice and (2) are concerned with the problem of alienation can apply the arsenal of the moral theory of political liberalism to solve these problems. I also criticize Rawls’s and Nussbaum’s theories of political liberalism for their procedural vagueness and non-inclusive theory of justice. I present an outline of my position, which I propose to call “extended political liberalism” (hereafter EPL). EPL is currently represented by two arguments: 1) the paideia argument and 2) the argument of the interdependence of the good and the right. The first allows talking about the actual implementation of fundamental rights and freedoms only when citizens are aware of them and have the opportunity to change their views regarding the personal conception of the good. This is impossible without qualitative primary education. Also, one of the central concepts of EPL is presented within the framework of Paideia’s argument – the interpretation of the political conception of justice. Because of this concept, it makes sense to talk about the possibility of citizens’ reflection on reconciling the current political conception with the personal conception of the good. This can also be done by analyzing other conceptions of the good. The second argument continues the first, appearing as a theoretical mechanism that allows supplementing the existing political conception in case of profound social changes. In conclusion, if we consider the advantages of the capabilities approach, and my criticism of its weaknesses, a theoretical position that is quite acceptable to some representatives of Marxism will emerge. Moreover, the latter will not have to give up their basic beliefs. The peculiarity of my concept presented in this text is that it is not so much a critique of Marxism as an analysis of the basic normative judgments of political liberalism, with which some Marxists can agree. With this article, I also want to illustrate the strengths of such a concept and point to its prospects for further attempts to interpret the political conception from other normative positions.
About the author: Vsevolod Khoma is a PhD student in philosophy at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. He developed his project within the IUfU Fall Semester 2022 course Ideologies on the Move: Transnational Ideas in Local Intellectual Cultures (course director: Dr. Tetiana Zemliakova).
Rodionova, Tatiana, and Tetiana Adelzberh. “Energy Reorientation of Europe As a Result of The War in Ukraine,” Infrastructura Rynku, Issue 71 (2023): 31-36.
https://doi.org/10.32782/infrastruct71-6
Abstract:
The purpose of this research paper is to analyze different options available to the EU Member States regarding the refusal to extend contracts related to energy trade with the Russian Federation. In 2022, Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine changed global perspectives. Most importantly, this war continues to have a devastating human toll and threatens the global economy. The energy sector turned out to be the most vulnerable part due to sanctions imposed against Russia as a leading exporter of energy resources. These sanctions have created uncertainty about the future of energy trade between Russia and the EU, as well as the reliability of Russian energy supplies. This has highlighted the need for the EU to diversify its energy sources and phase out its energy imports from Russia, which has been a longstanding issue. Therefore, it is important to consider the potential economic and political consequences of a decision to rely on Russian energy.
About the author: Tetiana Adelzberh has recently graduated from the BA program in International Economic Relations at Illia Mechnykov Odesa National University. She developed her project within the IUfU Fall Semester 2022 course Ukraine in/and Europe: Frameworks of European Integration (course directors: Dr. Marta Mochulska and Dr. Maryna Rabinovych).
Serhii Silvanovych, “Shevchenko’s Myth in Katerynoslav’s Urban Public Space in the Late 19th — Early 20th Centuries.” (In Ukrainian) Ukrainskyi Istorychnyi Zhurnal, Issue 2 (2022): 79-95.
https://doi.org/10.15407/uhj2023.02.079
Abstract:
The research aims to find out how the national myth of T. Shevchenko began to penetrate into the public sphere of Katerynoslav (Yekaterinoslav), which was one of the largest multi-ethnic industrial Ukrainian cities at the end of the nineteenth century. The relevance of this article is based on the modern historiographical situation, which is dominated by populist and local lore approaches for studying the regional reception of Shevchenko’s heritage. The concept of “myth” is the key to this research. The “myth” means a closed semiotic system with a set of universal symbols, which can perform its regulatory function through a ritual. In the public space, the myth is (re)produced as a result of public actors’ activities. In order to define and analyze these public actors, the author proposes personal and institutional approaches. Looking at a particular case, the author has developed a model for studying the genesis and assimilation of Shevchenko’s myth in the regional public space within the Russian Empire. He concludes that the national myth of Shevchenko had a nonlinear path of formation and development in Katerynoslav. Originating in the public space in the mid-1880s, the myth was circulating in a narrow circle of the local intelligentsia (I. Manzhura, M. Bykov), who had an attempt to shape the populist myth of Shevchenko. However, in the early 1900s, a completely different institutional and personnel environment emerged in Katerynoslav. Actors who belonged to “personnel import” and were committed to the Ukrainian idea (D. Yavornytskyi, A. Syniavskyi) became new public agents in maintaining the discourse about Shevchenko. They promoted the national myth of Shevchenko both through acting in public organizations and working in official institutions. On the one hand, instrumentalization by different local ideological groups was the product of the assimilation of this myth; on the other hand, a crystallization of national identity and self-identification in urban public space took place. The article proposes an approach to study the functioning of Shevchenko’s myth in a regional space, which opens a path for other studies in the fields of intellectual and regional history.
About the author: Serhii Silvanovych is a master’s student in history at Oles Honchar Dnipro National University. He developed his project within the IUfU Fall Semester 2022 course History of Public Sphere in Ukraine and East Central Europe (course director: Dr. Ostap Sereda).
Skidan, N. V. “Supreme Courts’ Case Law As a Source of Law in Europe: A Comparative Study in Ukrainian Perspective,” Yurydychnyi Naukovyi Elektronnyi Zhurnal 5 (2023): 364-368.
https://doi.org/10.32782/2524-0374/2023-5/90
Case law is not recognized as an official source of law in Ukraine, as it is in most countries in the Romano-Germanic legal family, but the application of the law demonstrates the reverse. This paper aims to discover an acceptable mechanism for legal regulation and enforcement of Supreme Court case law as a source of law in the context of Ukraine’s eventual European Union membership. To achieve this, the experiences of member states such as Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic, all of which are part of the same legal family as Ukraine, were reviewed. The paper focused on the jurisprudence of Cour de Cassation / Hof van Cassatie in Belgium, the Hoge Raad in the Netherlands, and the Nejvy Soud in the Czech Republic in order to select the most acceptable approach for enhancing the judicial decision-making process within the Supreme Court of Ukraine.
The review of the legislation of all the chosen countries confirms that the supreme courts, in addition to dealing with justice, also universalize the country’s case law. However, the legal instruments in the possession of supreme court judges vary greatly depending on the peculiarities of each state’s domestic legislation.
Following the study, the implementation of the Belgian experience appears to be difficult to apply in Ukraine, given the internal and unique features of its legal system. In contrast to that, the approaches developed in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands have particular advantages and thus can serve as a guide in developing Ukraine’s own model on their basis.
In the author’s view, the Supreme Court’s case law is a source of law as a phenomenon, but not all of its decisions should be regarded as such. It is vital to distinguish the most important decisions from the others and publish them separately (for example, in a special journal, as in the Czech Republic or the Netherlands). This way, it will clarify which Supreme Court decisions may be considered a source of law and assure that they have such status legally.
About the author: Nataliia Skidan is a PhD Student at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Kharkiv) and a Visiting Researcher at the University of Liege. She developed her project within the IUfU Fall Semester 2022 course Ukraine in/and Europe: Frameworks of European Integration (course directors: Dr. Marta Mochulska and Dr. Maryna Rabinovych).