One of the requirements for becoming a member of the European Union is to build a system of the Bar which would be consistent with new socio-political and economic realities, and to generate legislation comprising the provisions which reproduce the model of the European institute of the Bar.

Despite the fact that many scholars studied certain aspects of attorney-at-law activities, so far there has been no comprehensive research of access to the Bar in Ukraine. However, proper organizational and legal support of attorney-at-law activities and the Bar can be considered a decisive step towards the establishment of the rule-of-law State capable of protecting human rights and freedoms reliably, and this once again emphasizes the importance of the issue under study.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the European standards of access to the Bar on the principles of humanocentrism, and also to analyze international and national practice in this area, and to outline the vectors for improvement of this human rights institution in Ukraine. It is established that the European standards of the Bar are of great importance in regulating the status of attorney-at-law and attorney-at-law activities. The author analyzes two main models of attorney’s-at-law professional training: 1) the system which comprises specialized professional school, for example, in France (Bar School); 2) the system based on courses which exists in England and Wales.

The author concludes that the analysis of the European standards of access to the Bar suggests that requirements to a person who intends to get the attorney’s-at-law status are more severe than those established by the Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and Attorney-atLaw Activities”. Besides, there is a need for a coordinated and systematic approach to the legislative definition of qualification requirements under the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education”, since a candidate for attorney’s-at-law status should have at least the secondlevel (master’s) education degree. With a view to harmonizing Ukraine’s legislation on the Bar and attorney-at-law activities with the European standards, the procedure for acquiring the attorney’s-at-law status in Ukraine should be improved.