Human Rights in the Context of Legal Pedagogy of Professor Petro Rabinovych

Abstract

The article is devoted to the achievements of the outstanding jurist and educator, Academician of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Law, Professor P. M. Rabinovych in the field of legal education and the legal upbringing of school students. The emphasis is placed on the scholar’s pioneering role in the theoretical substantiation and practical implementation of the educational course “Human Rights” in Ukrainian schools. It is argued that the professor's interest in the problem of human rights was a logical continuation of his views on legal values, legality, and the rule of law. The empirical basis for studying this component of the scholar’s legacy consisted of approximately 30 of his works, primarily textbooks and other teaching and methodological publications, in the preparation of which he took a direct part and which laid the foundations for a new paradigm of legal education in independent Ukraine. The scientific novelty of the article lies both in the formulation of the problem itself which has not previously been addressed in biographical publications about P. M. Rabinovych, and in the comprehensive approach to its resolution, as well as in the introduction into scholarly circulation of new facts, in particular those derived from the author’s personal experience of cooperation with the professor in the field of legal education and the legal upbringing of school students The features of P. M. Rabinovych’s legal pedagogy are specifically highlighted, including the instillation in students of the methodology of general legal theory, the fostering of respect for human rights, and pedagogical tact.