Supporting new talents

As a part of our endeavour to promote young talents we are happy to have commenced a collaboration between the Law Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava and the Vienna Business University. The focus of our support is a high profile two semester programme named "Austrian Law School" which aims to prepare highly motivated and achieving students for a successful legal career. We know that first class legal services can only be provided by the most skilled and qualified people, thus we want to ensure we play a key role in helping them grow.

The project “Austrian Law School in Pressburg” is a joint project of the Research Institute for Central and Eastern European Business Law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Forschungsinsitut für mittel- und osteuropäisches Wirtschaftsrecht - FOWI an der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) and the Faculty of Law at the Comenius University in Bratislava (Právnická fakulta Univerzity Komenského v Bratislave).

The Austrian Law School is an important achievement in the cooperation of these institutions. The project leader on the Austrian side is Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Winner, the chairman of the Institute for Central and Eastern European Business Law, the project leader on the Slovak side is Univ.-Prof. Dr. Mária Patakyová, Ph.D., Professor at the Department for Commercial, Financial and Economic Law and Vice Principal of the Comenius University.

The project organises an elective course in German language within the regular studies at the Faculty of Law at the Comenius University. It was first introduced in Bratislava in 2004 and it has been taking place very successfully so far.

The Slovak students, who apply for this programme, need solid knowledge of the German language. During the lectures they are taught the basics of Austrian civil and business law. They also become familiar with and get the chance to practise German legal language.

We were successful in assuring the participation of well-known Austrian jurists from both universities and the private sector to hold the lectures within the project, especially Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Winner, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Schauer, em. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Peter Doralt, Dr. Manfred Ton and Dr. Christoph Diregger.

At least one excursion to Vienna is organised each year – either to a civil court or to another public institution. Last year, the students visited the Austrian Takeover Commission.

Students, who have participated in the whole course, get a special certificate at the end of the year during a small ceremony at the Faculty of Law in Bratislava, which is also attended by the project leaders and the other project staff.

Approximately 100 students have attended the programme “Austrian Law School in Pressburg” until now. The majority of the alumni have reportedly become successful lawyers in the private sector.

If you would like to know more, please .