“Justice, Law, and Society”-12 Seminar: A Dialogue on the Nature of Law and the Challenges of Our Time
From May 28 to June 1, 2025, in Zakarpattia, the Aspen Institute Kyiv, in partnership with the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine, held the 12th seminar titled “Justice, Law, and Society.”
Over the course of five days, 23 participants — representatives of the legal, academic, and civil society communities — explored the essence of justice, the nature of law, and the place of the individual in society. Discussions focused on questions that define the core of modern legal order: from the evolution of checks and balances and the limits of judicial accountability to the institution of ostracism and the practice of revoking citizenship. Participants also examined the relationship between state and society, the boundaries of individual freedoms, and the duty to oppose unjust laws.
Key themes included: distributive justice and tax policy, honesty as a subjective dimension of justice, the limits of judicial activism, and the nature of natural human rights, which exist independently of the will of the state. These discussions helped broaden participants’ understanding of legal reality, today’s most pressing challenges, and ways to build a human-centred legal system.
A notable element of the program was a lecture by Oleksandr Vodyannikov, Senior Project Officer of the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine, titled “Theban Syndrome: An Urbanized Civilization Between Progress and the Abyss,” which prompted reflections on the crises of the present. Yuliya Tychkivska, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Kyiv, concluded the seminar by emphasizing the importance of open dialogue within the legal community in developing the rule of law.
Olena Fomina, Policy Program Director at the Aspen Institute Kyiv, coordinated the seminar.
The seminar “Justice, Law, and Society” reaffirmed that reflecting on the fundamental societal concepts of law and justice creates a space for a collective search for answers to the most critical questions of our time.
We sincerely thank our partners from the OSCE Support Programme for Ukraine for their ongoing support in creating a platform for dialogue among legal sector leaders, and to all participants for their meaningful contributions to the conversation.
The next “Justice, Law, and Society” seminar will be held in 2026.
