For a long period, comparative jurisprudence is undergoing transformation and self-identification ensuing, primarily, from the need for further research aimed at determining its place in the system of legal sciences. In this context, development of comparative jurisprudence as an academic discipline and an essential component of the training of modern legal professionals is of great importance. The purpose of the article is to investigate the trends in the development of the academic discipline “comparative jurisprudence” in the context of reforms of the education and science system with due regard for the foreign experience of teaching this discipline. As can be seen from the analysis of the curricular of higher legal education institutions of foreign countries, the course in comparative jurisprudence is taught almost in all leading universities of the world, being the evidence that a need to have it in the system of legal education has been appropriately recognized. A significant experience in the development of courses of study comprising comparative jurisprudence issues has been accumulated in the United States where leading universities develop and implement such disciplines as “International and Comparative Law” (for example, Harvard University, Boston University, George Washington University, Cairo American University). Many higher education institutions and law faculties in Europe (e.g. Edinburgh University’s School of Law, Queen Mary University of London) give much attention to preparing the curricula of comparative law courses. Courses in comparative law are also developed in the countries of the Asian continent, for example, in the Chinese University of Political Sciences and Law. Although there are differences regarding the structure of comparative jurisprudence as an academic discipline, most researchers mark out its General and Special Parts. The main problem is seen in the teaching of its Special Part, which is due to several circumstances. Firstly, there is an uncertainty about the contents of this part of the discipline, since different authors fill it with different contents. Secondly, there is an urgent need to develop educational and methodological material of its Special Part. As a result of rapid development of comparative legal research in Ukraine in the 90s-early 2000, a large array of research and educational papers was created, and this contributed to the emergence of the discipline “Comparative Jurisprudence” and its integration into the curricula of higher educational institutions. Branch-specific academic disciplines relating to comparative law were also actively developed: comparative constitutional law, comparative criminal law, comparative labor law, comparative environmental law, comparative civil law, etc. Notwithstanding the availability of various research, academic and educational methodological materials on comparative jurisprudence developed by national comparative scientists, in recent years the share of this discipline raises concerns, since some courses with a focus on comparative law are gradually being excluded from curricula. It is fundamentally important to understand that comparative jurisprudence as a science and an academic discipline can and should become an essential link which will connect the academic knowledge received by students while studying for a university degree and the dynamics of changes in social life, and will also facilitate finding solutions to specific practical tasks within the framework of the legal profession.

List of legal documents 

Authered books

1. Frankenberg G, Comparative Law as Critique (Elgar Studies in Legal Theory 2016) (in English).

Journal articles

2. Bermann G, ‘The discipline of comparative law in the United States’ [1999] 4(51) Revue internationale de droit comparé 1044 (in English).

3. George P, ‘Fletcher Comparative Law as a Subversive Discipline’ [1998] 4(46) The American Journal of Comparative Law 683-700 (in English).

4. Palmer V V, ‘From Lerotholi to Lando: Some Examples of Comparative’ (2004) 4 Law Methodology Global Jurist Frontiers 2 (in English).

5. Osakve K, ‘Razmyishlenie o prirode sravnitelnogo pravovedeniya: nekotoryie teoreticheskie voprosyi’ [‘Reflection on the Nature of Comparative Jurisprudence: Some Theoretical Issues’] (2006) 3 Zhurnal zarubezhnogo zakonodatelstva i sravnitelnogo pravovedeniya 59 (in Russian).

6. Tihomirov Yu, ‘Sravnitelnoe pravovedenie: razvitie kontseptsiy i obschestvennoy praktiki’ [‘Comparative Jurisprudence: Development of Concepts and Public Practice’] (2006) 6 Zhurnal rossiyskogo prava 4 (in Russian).

Websites

7. ‘Comparative Law Methodology’ (Queen Mary University of London) <https://www. qmul.ac.uk/study/law> (accessed: 15.10.2018) (in English).

8. ‘Department of International and Сomparative education’ (University of Edinburg) <https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees/index.php?r=site/view&id=684> (accessed: 15.10.2018) (in English).

9. ‘Indiana University’ (Indianapolis) <https://mckinneylaw.iu.edu/admissions/jd/index. html> (accessed: 15.10.2018) (in English).

10. ‘International & Comparative Law Courses’ (Boston University School of Law) <http:// www.bu.edu/law/academics/areas-of-study/international-comparative-law> (accessed: 15.10.2018) (in English).

11. ‘International & Comparative Law LLM’ (The George Washington University) <https://www.law.gwu.edu/international-comparative-law-llm> (accessed: 15.10.2018) (in English).

12. ‘International and Comparative Law’ (American University in Cairo) <http://catalog. aucegypt.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=27&poid=4789> (accessed: 15.10.2018) (in English).