Court Overturns Reorganization of the Odesa Law Academy

The court overturned the Cabinet of Ministers’ decree on the reorganization of the National University “Odessa Law Academy” and its merger with the I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University.

This was reported by attorney Rostislav Kravets, who represents the interests of the Odessa Law Academy.

According to Kravets, the Kyiv District Administrative Courtgranted the lawsuit filed by the academy’s employees and overturned the government decree. The text of the decision had not been made public as of the time of publication, so the reasons why the court overturned the decree are currently unknown.

On February 12, 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted Order No. 111-r on the reorganization of the Odessa Law Academy and its merger with the I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University. On February 13, the Ministry of Education and Science issued a corresponding order.

The Law Academy filed a lawsuit demanding that the court overturn the contested decisions—the Cabinet of Ministers’ decree and the Ministry of Education and Science’s order—and requested a temporary injunction to halt the transfer of students to Mechnikov ONU, the transfer of the university’s property, and the dismissal of employees while the case was pending.

On March 10, the court denied these requests, but the institution appealed the decision. In December 2025, the appellate court overturned the lower court’s decision and partially granted the petition—it suspended the Ministry of Education and Science’s order on the academy’s reorganization and prohibited the dismissal of employees until a final decision is reached in the case.

The academy also appealed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk, requesting that they revoke the Cabinet of Ministers’ decree on the reorganization.

On February 25, 2026, the Kyiv District Administrative Court denied a request to appoint a judicial-economic expert examination in the case. The Primary Trade Union Organization of the Odesa Law Academy filed a corresponding motion, requesting a comparison of the economic indicators of the academy and Mechnikov Odesa National University to determine whether the Cabinet of Ministers had adhered to the principles of excellence, good faith, equality before the law, and proportionality when making the decision on reorganization.

In 2025, Intent discovered that applicants from 2024 and 2025 who had enrolled in the “Vocational College of the National University ‘Odesa Law Academy’,” had, in fact, ended up in a private institution rather than a public one.

Ірина Глухова