On June 25-29, 2014, Institute for Law and Public Policy in cooperation with Faculty of Law of Higher School of Economics were successfully hosted the International Summer School "The innovation methods of legal disciplines teaching: case-method and the practice-oriented teaching methodology” in Moscow.

The Summer School Program was developed in the context of broad implementation of the competence approach to the preparation of lawyers of new generation taking into account the experience of the All-Russian Contest for Constitutional Justice 2011-2013 and recommendations of Russian and foreign experts and practical wishes of judges and officers of the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of Russian Federation. 

The School was attended by 20 lecturers and PhD students [who are actively using or planning to use case-method and the practice-oriented teaching methodology of legal disciplines in their teaching activity] of universities specializing in the sphere of public and private law from the institutions of higher education of 9 regions of Russia (Moscow, Stavropol, Pyatigorsk, Ekaterinburg, Nevinnomyssk, Petrozavodsk, Rostov-on-Don, Perm, Tver), CIS countries (Kazakhstan), Europe (Netherlands). They represented the following universities: Russian Academy of Justice, Ural State Law Academy, Petrozavodsk State University, Southern Federal University, Perm National Research University, Tver State University, Higher School of Economics (Moscow), Kazakh Humanitarian Law University (Astana).

The Summer School curriculum is tailor-made to cover all spheres of the innovation methods of legal disciplines teaching.

The Program of the Summer School was intended for 5 full-time days and allowed the participants during the intensive study course to improve skills of legal writing and drafting documents submitted to the Constitutional Court of Russian Federation, of forming the reasoned legal position, of implementing comparative approach, of eloquence and time-management.

For the further application and transmission of the acquired knowledge to the newcomers the hearers of the Summer School had had the possibility to got acquainted in detail with the methodic of carrying out moot courts in the sphere of constitutional justice in the framework of studying and  preparing student teams for the participation in the contests for constitutional justice.

The School brought participants face to face with leading highly professional team of experts who had the experience both of real interaction with The Russian Constitutional Court and organization and conduction of moot courts, through a School that reflected the latest practices: Maxim Timofeev, PhD in Law, Lecturer at Central European University (Budapest, Hungary), Alexey  Dolzhikov, PhD in Law, Associate Professor at Altay State University, Alexandra Troitskaya, PhD in Law, Associate Professor at Lomonosov State University (MSU), Elena Markova, Lecturer at Lomonosov State University, who are the graduates of the Educational Project of the Institute of Law and Public Policy for Lecturers from CIS countries HESP ReSET Project "Comparative Constitutional Law: Theory and Methodology in the Context of Constitutional Reforms" (2009-2012).

It is worth noting the session on legal reasoning skills conducted by Grigory Vaypan, the Head of legal division of the Institute, and Alexandra Ivlieva, PhD student of International Law Department of Lomonosov State University. They are MSU team coaches that has become the first in the history of the Russian team that won the prestigious international competition on international law (moot court) named after F. Jessup.

The classes prepared by Maxim Timofeyev (“Implementation of the constitutional justice and use of the comparative legal and international legal materials”) and Elena Markova: (“Using video in the learning process”) were of high interest too.

The School handouts consisted of the ​​decisions of the Russian Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, as well as of carefully selected thematic scientific publications, mostly appearing in the "Comparative Constitutional Journal". More than 40 materials were proposed to participants.