Ministry of Justice considering possibility of introducing a course on electronic technologies for lawyers

Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Davit Harutyunyan discussed with the deans of law faculties of a number of higher education institutions of Armenia and institutions providing legal education the possibility of introducing — within higher educational institutions — a course on electronic tools and technologies in the field of law.

The purpose of the meeting organised at the initiative of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia was to improve the practical skills of future lawyers within educational institutions, conditioned by the large-scale operation of electronic management systems.

Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Suren Krmoyan; Dean of the Faculty of Law of Yerevan State University Gagik Ghazinyan;
Head of the Institute of Law and History of the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University Larisa Alaverdyan; Dean of the Faculty of Law of the French University in Armenia Karin Hovsepyan; Rector of the Justice Academy Sergey Arakelyan;
Director of the School of Advocates Simon Babayan and Director of the “Centre for Legal Education and Rehabilitation Programmes” SNCO of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Ashot Hayrapetyan took part in the meeting.

Employee of the Ministry Anna Harutyunyan presented to the participants of the meeting the conceptual approaches of introducing a course on legal technologies at higher education institutions of the Republic of Armenia, the current programmes at top foreign universities and the proposal of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia regarding programmes for teaching at universities. Particularly, for the purpose of preparing lawyers with relevant skills in the public and private sectors, it was proposed to include in the higher education programme a course for acquiring skills and knowledge for using the websites of the "Mulberry" system for circulation of electronic documents, the legal information systems of Armenia, the unified website for publishing draft legal acts, as well as the websites of the judicial information system, the European Court of Human Rights and the Venice Commission.

According to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, future lawyers should be aware of the possibilities of making use of the mentioned systems and to make them the tool for their daily use. At the same time, Davit Harutyunyan suggested that the heads of the faculties also take advantage of the opportunity to submit recommendations for draft legal acts at www.e-draft.am, which serves as a new tool for checking the knowledge and analytical skills of students.

The participants of the meeting welcomed the proposal presented by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and agreed on developing a joint project aimed at introducing programmes on legal technologies that will be taught.