About the Commercial
Law Center

Based in Kyiv, Ukraine, the Commercial Law Center is a  USAID  project managed by Emerging Markets Group Ltd. The Center is dedicated to commercial law reform in Ukraine.

Despite considerable progress in recent years, commercial law reform in Ukraine remains unfinished. Change must occur in the framework of laws, the administration of justice and the court system, the institutional mechanisms for enforcement of judgments, the training and education of legal professionals and business leaders, and indeed in fundamental aspects of the civic culture. To effect the necessary change, USAID/Kyiv has designed a comprehensive program to lay the foundation for sustainable commercial law development in Ukraine and the Center  has formed an organization optimally suited to achieve the desired results.

The Center closely cooperates with the University of "Kyiv-Mohyla Academy", the National Yaroslav Mudriy Law Academy, and the Law Sciences Academy of Ukraine, as well as with research and educational institutions in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Lviv, and Odesa.

OBJECTIVES

The key objectives of the project are to:
• Increase knowledge and understanding of commercial law in Ukraine;
• To organize training for lawmakers, lawyers, and business managers;
• To establish a forum for dialog on commercial law reform issues;
• To increase USAID's capacity to address Ukraine's needs in the commercial law reform area.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The Center's target audience includes:
• Government employees, including municipal-level officials;
• Commercial law professionals, educators, and students;
• NGOs;
• The media;
• The business community;
• The general public.

The technical assistance mission of the USAID Commercial Law Сenter Project, implemented by Emerging Markets Group Ltd., is to assist Ukraine in its transition to a market economy through the development of a comprehensive, coherent and efficient commercial law framework to support and encourage business and investment transactions. Additionally, the Project educates members of the legal and business community by providing quality public and private professional training and information through practical, valued programs and attractive publications designed to advance Ukrainian commercial law reform. Through the locally established Commercial Law Center, the Project is assertively organizing and integrating the talents and resources of eminent Ukrainian law faculty, practitioners and government officials to work harmoniously with the Verkhovna Rada and other lawmakers to provide for rational and self-sustaining commercial law reform and to implement fair procedures to make commercial law in Ukraine operational and enforceable.

Commercial law governs the areas of business transactions and commerce, including laws regarding business organizations, sales of commodities and goods, contracts, negotiable instruments, credit transactions, secured transactions, debtor and creditor remedies, intellectual property, dispute resolution and enforcement of judicial decisions, fair competition, real estate and land transactions, mortgages, investment and financing mechanisms.