History of the faculty
The history of advanced legal education in Eastern Slovakia is rather ample and reaches as far back as the Middle Ages, namely the period of Feudalism. The birth of legal scholarship in east Slovakia (former north-east Hungary as a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), is closely linked to the town of Košice. Here, the Bishop of the Eger Bishopric, Benedikt Kisdy, issued a decree on 6th February 1657 in a nearby village of Jasov, whereby he established an academy modelled after the University of Trnava (studium univerzale seu academiam) and he handed it to the Jesuits. Three years later, on 27th August 1660, Monarch Leopold I, by the edict called Golden Bull, granted the academy of Košice university status. Thereby, the Košice University was bestowed with such privileges as the universities of Köln, Vienna, Olomouc, Graz, Trnava and Ingolstadt.
At the time of its founding, the University of Košice had two faculties: the Faculty of Arts and Theological Faculty. With the generous financial support of the Keczer family, Department of Canon Law was established at the University in 1712. This laid down the foundations of the third faculty – the Faculty of Law. However, it was not opened until as late as 1777.
After a major reorganisation of the Hungarian education system by the Ratio educationis of 1777 (one of the Theresian reforms), the University was transformed into the Royal Academy in Košice (Academia Regia Cassoviensis). In the same year, the Royal Academy became only a branch of the single national Hungarian University. This university became the successor of the Trnava University that had been moved to Budín.
The Royal Academy in Košice consisted of Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Law, both with two-year studies. The prerequisite for being admitted to the Faculty of Law was graduating from a six-year grammar school and a two-year Faculty of Arts. This structure of the Royal Academy in Košice and the studies at the Faculty of Law was preserved until the academic year 1849/50.
The arrival of the reactionary political regime, known as Bach Absolutism, affected also the destiny of the Faculty of Law of the Royal Academy in Košice. The new legislation created independent legal academies from the former two-year law law faculties of the royal academies (temporary decree on establishing imperial-royal law academies in Hungary, granted by the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I on 29th September 1850, and supplemented by an implementary regulation of the Austrian Department of Education of 4th October 1850).
The Royal Academy of Košice was also subject to the said reform. Since the academic year 1850/1851, it became the independent Imperial-Royal Law Academy in Košice (Caesareo-regia Iuris Academia). The duration of studies remained unchanged at two years with eight subjects at four departments.
This structure was changed by an order of the Austrian Emperor and implementary regulation of the Austrian Department of Education, passed on 2nd October 1855, both being legal amendments to the organisational statutes of universities and law academies. This legislation introduced three-year studies at the Law Academy in Košice with twelve subjects at six departments. However, this training was not enough to obtain the title Doctor of Laws. That degree was obtained only by a further four-semester course at university law schools, where, unlike law academies, the study of law lasted four years altogether.
After the Austro-Hungarian Settlement in 1867, the Law Academy in Košice, as well as other law academies in Hungary, was administered by the Hungarian Department of Education. By the regulation of 19th May 1874, the Hungarian Department of Education introduced a new organisation of law academies in Hungary. The Law Academy of Košice was officially renamed to Jurisprudence and State Law Faculty. At the same time, the study was prolonged to four years and the faculty had newly already eight departments.
Despite the efforts of the Hungarian Ministry of Education, the reform of 1874 failed to unify and equalize legal studies at universities. Law academies, unlike university law faculties, did not have the right of graduation and habilitation, which ultimately posed a real danger to their very existence. That is why the city council of Košice, at its meeting on 27th July 1882, demanded the establishment of a university in Košice. In a memorandum to that effect sent to the Hungarian Parliament, a request for a new university was made, initially with at least a faculty of law and philosophy.
Aiming to preserve and stabilize university studies in Košice, the city authorities had a new building built for the Košice Academy of Law at Kováčská Street 26 in 1891-1894. The academy moved to these new premises from its former seat in the old building of the Košice University (the former gymnasium at Kováčská Street 28). The new premises remained the seat of the institution and the dean’s office until this day. In 1894, the academy was nationalised. This meant that the Law Academy in Košice, as the only one of the twelve law academies in Hungary, was no longer financed from the study fund, but from the budget of the Hungarian Ministry of Education.
After the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak Republic on 28th October 1918, the Academy of Law in Košice operated as an autonomous unit until the end of February 1919 and it was governed by the relevant Hungarian organisational, study and examination legislation. Several professors of the Košice Academy, however, took an irreconcilably extreme negative attitude to the establishment and existence of the Czechoslovak Republic. Ultimately, this contributed to the demise of its existence.
The Ministry of Education and Enlightenment in Prague issued unified principles of Czechoslovak educational policy in relation to universities in Slovakia for the academic year 1919/1920, mainly concerning the Hungarian University in Bratislava and the Law Academy in Košice. In accordance with these principles, the activities of the Košice Law Academy were suspended at the end of September 1919. After an interpellation of the professors to the Minister of Education and Enlightenment in Prague, it was ultimately decided to extend the existence of the Košice Law Academy until the school year 1921/1922.
The dissolution of the Law Academy in Košice goes hand in hand with the establishment of the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University in Bratislava. Under § 4 of the government decree No. 276/1921 Coll. of 11 August 1921 „On the Establishment of the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University in Bratislava“, the Law Academy in Košice was to be shut down at the end of the academic year 1921/1922. The final ceremonial assembly of the professors and students of the Law Academy in Košice took place on 31st July 1922. On that day, the city of Košice ceased to be a university town, only to become one again with the establishment of the Milan Rastislav Štefánik Technical University in 1938, the seat of which became the building of the former Law Academy in Košice.
A significant milestone in the system of higher education in east Slovakia was the year 1959, when the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice with the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Philosophy was founded.
Already in the first years of existence of the new Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, an idea emerged to put the finishing touches to the university studies in Košice by establishing a law faculty.
The absence of a law faculty within the UPJŠ did not mean a complete stagnation in the education of university-educated lawyers for the needs of eastern Slovakia. The Faculty of Law of Comenius University in Bratislava was able to fulfil this task by accepting students from eastern Slovakia both for full-time studies and for studies in addition to employment (external studies).
In the mid-fifties and in the sixties, the management of the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University in Bratislava even opened a consultation centre in Košice for external students. At the end of the 1960s, the consultation centre was relocated from Košice to Poprad.
In 1968, the Ministry of Justice of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic prepared a study on the society-wide need for lawyers in Czechoslovakia based on an analysis of the situation in departments employing large numbers of lawyers.
On 31st May 1968, the management of the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University in Bratislava sent a statement concerning the study in question to the Board of Education in Bratislava and the Rector’s Office of the Bratislava University. However, since the capacity of the Bratislava Law Faculty did not objectively meet this trend, the management of the Bratislava Faculty of Law recommended to newly establish a law faculty in Košice as soon as possible in order to satisfy the increasing need for lawyers.
The management of the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in Košice played an important and irreplaceable role in articulating the initial visions and organisational ideas. At its meeting on 18th February 1969 and based on the analysis of the increased demand for lawyers in Slovakia, particularly in Central and Eastern Slovakia, the Scientific Council of UPJŠ agreed to establish the Faculty of Law at UPJŠ on 1st July 1969. In this connection, the Scientific Council of UPJŠ instructed the Rector of UPJŠ to submit a proposal for the establishment of a Faculty of Law at UPJŠ to the Minister of Education and to recommend that this proposal be discussed at the next meeting of the Slovak Committee for Higher Education.
The proposed establishment of the Faculty of Law in Košice was considered on 18th April 1969 by the Slovak Committee for Higher Education with a positive outcome. The Rector of the University of Bratislava, the Rector of the UPJŠ in Košice and the Dean of the Bratislava Faculty of Law were entrusted with the task to make personnel, spatial and material arrangements for the establishment of the Košice Law Faculty. It also recommended that the Minister of Education of the Slovak Federal Republic should submit a proposal for the establishment of a Faculty of Law at the UPJŠ in Košice to the Government of the Slovak Federal Republic for consideration.
The negotiations between the two rectors and the dean of the Bratislava Faculty of Law resulted in an agreement on 7th May 1969. The most essential elements of the agreement were expressed in the unanimous opinion to start teaching at the Faculty of Law in Košice from 1st September 1970. It was to be officially established on the basis of a decision of the Government of the Slovak Federal Republic in the autumn of that year.
On 26th June 1969, the recommendation of the Slovak Committee for Higher Education with the opinion of both rectors and the dean of the Bratislava Faculty of Law led the Minister of Education of the Slovak Federal Republic to approve the establishment of a branch of the Bratislava Faculty of Law with its seat in Košice with the possibility to open on 1st October 1969.
However, the establishment of the branch did not take place as planned. On 7th October 1969, the newly elected rector of the UPJŠ in Košice wrote a letter to the rector of the Comenius University in Bratislava with a request to issue a decision on the establishment of a branch of the Bratislava Faculty of Law with its seat in Košice. The letter announced, among other things, that by decision of the Municipal Council in Košice, premises at Kováčská Street 26 were available for the newly established branch. The same premises were offered to the Bratislava Faculty of Law for the needs of external studies already in the academic year 1969/70.
By the decision of the College of the Dean of the Bratislava Faculty of Law on 18th November 1969, a commission was appointed with the task to prepare a comprehensive analysis of what was necessary to establish a branch of the Bratislava Faculty of Law in Košice. The commission cooperated with the Rector’s Office of the Comenius University in Bratislava.
The work of the Commission was very demanding considering the relatively short period of available time, but marked by a sincere effort of all interested parties to make the most objective and comprehensive assessment of the prerequisites not only for the establishment of a branch of the Faculty of Law in Košice, but also for its subsequent existence and functioning as developing institution of legal education with national and statewide scope and importance. In this spirit, the Commission conducted its tasks. The result of all these preparatory works was the decision of the Rector of the Comenius University in Bratislava of 12th April 1970 to establish a branch of the Bratislava Faculty of Law with its seat in Košice. This branch, as a complex pedagogical and scientific workplace, would teach students starting from the first year in the academic year 1970/1971 in Košice. This decision entered into force on 15th June 1970.
The academic year 1970/71 was the first year when the branch of the Bratislava Law Faculty in Košice began to operate. An employee of the Bratislava Law Faculty was appointed to manage the branch as a vice-dean for the branch.
After opening of the branch, the endeavour to establish an independent law faculty as an integral part of the UPJŠ did not cease. This fully corresponded with the original intention to complete the Košice University. The justification stemmed from the existing and fully satisfactory material, spatial and other conditions. It was evident from the management of the Bratislava Law Faculty that it was willing to provide personnel support to guarantee the necesarry quality of the teaching process in the first years of the independent Faculty of Law in Košice.
In 1972, a commission was formed to prepare a proposal for the establishment of an independent law faculty at the UPJŠ. The reasons for proposing the establishment of the Košice Faculty of Law was already prepared on 21st December 1972 and the whole elaboration of the Proposal for the establishment of the Faculty of Law of the UPJŠ in Košice was discussed at the next meeting of the Commission on 3rd January 1973.
The objective requirement to satisfy the increased demand for lawyers by establishing and further developing a fourth law faculty in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic met with the full understanding of the highest state authorities.
The preparations for the establishment of the second law faculty in Slovakia finally came to an end by issuing the Government Decree of the Slovak Socialist Republic No. 88/1973 Coll. of 9 July 1973 “On the Establishment of the Faculty of Law of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice”. The new faculty would open from the academic year 1973/1974.
The opening ceremony of the first school year of the Košice Faculty of Law together with the inauguration of its first dean took place on 28th September 1973 at the State Theatre in Košice. With the opening of the new faculty, the detached workplace of the Bratislava Faculty of Law ceased to exist.
Since its establishment, the Košice Law Faculty was located in the premises of Kováčská Street 26. Due to the increasing number of enrolments and the lack of space both for teaching and for the work of the departments, the Municipal National Committee in Košice in 1975 gave the building at Zbrojničná Street 5 to the faculty in order to cover its needs. As the enrolment of new students continued to rise and even the new spatial capacities no longer sufficed, the faculty building at Zbrojničná Street 5 was replaced by the former Gymnasium building at Kováčská Street 30 on 1st August 1987, with the consent of the city authorities. The faculty used the building together with the People’s School of Art until October 1995, when it was offered alternative premises and after its departure, the entire building was given to the faculty.
At present, the Faculty of Law of UPJŠ is a stabilized educational and research institution with its own organisational structure, a decent staff and a focus on training perspective graduates for the legal practice. The education system at the faculty has undergone innovation in recent years. A credit system of study is implemented at three levels of education: bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes in law and doctoral degree programmes in the following fields: international law, civil law, theory and history of the state and law, commercial and financial law, criminal law. Adequate changes have been made in the study programmes, taking into account the future careers of our graduates in practice.
