Current issues of digital legal education in the context of the Сovid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The main areas of digitalization of higher education, including legal one, have been actively discussed by representatives of authorities and the educational community over the past few years. The COVID-19 pandemic summed up these discussions in a certain way, making teachers and students shift to the practice of introducing digital technologies into the educational process without proper preparation and prior training for them. The article discusses the problems of digitalization of the higher education system of the Russian Federation faced by law faculties after the beginning of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. The authors state the positive results of the transition to digital technologies as well as the existing problems, many of which are of a systemic nature and are still to be resolved. At the same time, they point out that the requirements for the competencies of law graduates change in the context of the mass digitalization of all sectors of social life. Along with the knowledge, abilities and skills that are commonly recognized for lawyers, they must have the competencies to interact with authorities that have also shifted to a digital mode for communication with citizens and legal entities.