Law in Public Policy

Profession

The profession of a lawyer in public policy remains one of the most promising areas of professional activity and will not lose its relevance due to the variety of areas in which the skills of political and legal analysis of social situations, challenges, and methods for solving them will be in demand.Currently, there is a niche in the labour market where graduates of the master’s degree Programme of Law in Public Policy as specialists in assessing political and legal risks, election technologists and GR consultants, will be able to fully realize themselves. Modern public policy requires political marketing skills, knowledge in the field of political strategies, legal regulation, and law enforcement practice. They must be aware of peculiarities of information perception, master the methods of analyzing and managing public opinion, understand the laws governing legal mechanisms for implementing political strategies. Lawyers in public policy are highly qualified analysts able to predict the risks of political and legal initiatives and offer specific legal solutions to public problems.The programme allows students to develop analytical kills and solve applied tasks subject of legal services in the field of public policy, from drafting laws to managing election campaigns and analysing political and legal risks.The interdisciplinary knowledge, abilities, skills, and competencies that students acquire within this programme are universal: a change in profession or research interest of graduates will not prevent them from adequately competing with specialists in such professional areas as communications, management consulting, and organisation of project activities.The Law in Public Policy programme is a practice-oriented education with a serious theoretical and analytical component for those who wish to work in this area and strive to become a highly qualified specialist in the field of political and legal analysis, legal assessment of political technologies, solving socially significant challenges and problems of political institutions functioning.

Educational Process

The Master’s degree programme grants high-quality professional training to the Master’s students who have completed a Bachelor’s degree in various fields of study. Those students who have been awarded Bachelor’s degrees in non-legal fields have an opportunity to do a Conversion Course: Introduction to Political Theory and Introduction to the Theory of State and Law.
The programme includes a pool of interrelated disciplines that form the logic of the studies. It is connected with acquisition of general theoretical and methodological knowledge aimed at understanding the legal forms of political interaction, legal qualification of information and political manipulation and methods of political and legal analysis of law-making and law enforcement practice. Also, there are practical courses that form applied skills of political consulting, the use of electoral technologies, and experience in comparative research in the field of law and public policy.
The public policy specialists are trained to apply practical skills in various social fields. It is the principle that the programme focuses on. Master’s students get information about foresight technologies, scripting, segmentation of social groups and target audience selection. They learn:
— to create election and lobbying campaign strategies;
— to use methods of positioning and promoting a person or idea in the political and legal sphere;
— to work with the risks associated with the implementation of political and legal initiatives;
— to evaluate legislation and law enforcement practice;
— to implement various methods of political and legal analysis when making decisions.
The academic foresight-seminar Law as a Tool of Public Policy, which is part of the curriculum, is held in the form of project work with the organization of a series of master classes from the leading practitioners.
The postgraduate student of the programme Law in Public Policy will be able to:
— acquire the competencies necessary to work in state and municipal bodies, conduct electoral and other political campaigns, give legal advice and get experience in interacting with public authorities, as well as acquire skills of legislative work;
— gain knowledge about the specifics of legal techniques and analytical skills in public policy, technologies of political decision-making, methods of legal analysis of political discourse, formal and informal political practices, political institutions and processes in various political systems;
— master the basic theoretical concepts of legal and political communications in the context of organizing a dialogue between the government and society, identify the role and place of political communication in the modern political process, learn to analyze the features of interaction of the main political actors from the information space of Russia and the world, get an idea of the basics and best practices of applying various legal and political communication technologies;
— master the methodological foundations of the application of current legislation in the field of legal support of applied problems of public policy, solving controversial issues of the functioning of political institutions, using political technologies in the modern political process and public administration;
— develop the skills of giving legal advice and conducting legal research in public policy, master the methods of political expertise.
Disciplines: Legal Forms of Political Interaction; Information and Political Manipulation and Social Myth-Making: Legal Qualification, Theory and Cases; Political and Legal Analysis in Law-Making and Law Enforcement Practice: Theory and Cases; Techniques of Reasoning in Law; Theoretical and Legal Foundations of the Electoral Process and Electoral Technologies; Technologies and Legal Forms of Political Consulting; Applied Sociology of Law and Political Sociology.

Practice

Students do internship at specialized enterprises and institutions, in government and management bodies: in the Bank of Russia, in the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation; in the Legislative Assemblies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation; in the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation; in the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation; in the Federal Treasury of the Russian Federation; in the Office of the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation; in the Office of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring).

Career

The Master’s programme “Law in Public Policy” trains future lobbyists, GR consultants, other political consultants, political risk assessors, heads of election headquarters, in other words, specialists who can realize their potential along several trajectories in the future.
Academic career:
The graduates may successfully realize their research potential, theoretical knowledge about law development, political processes, political institutions, and academic and pedagogical competencies in further activities at institutions of higher education. They are able to participate in international academic projects, publish their research in leading academic journals, be leaders and participants in large grants, and be competitive enough to work at foreign universities.
Consulting and expert activities in the field of public policy:
The programme graduates are able to work as political consultants and experts in such public authorities and organizations as the State Duma and the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, Moscow City Duma and Government of Moscow, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry, local government agencies, Eurasian Economic Commission, GR divisions of market leaders.
Moreover, public policy lawyers are in demand as assistants to deputies and senators of various levels; they may be engaged in electoral consulting, political parties and as heads of individual candidates’ headquarters, as well as in the political risk consulting market (country risk assessment in general, risk assessment in certain industries, assessment of regulatory risks for individual companies and their divisions).
The graduates who have mastered the programme can also work as public lawyers and legal consulting expert in the development of draft regulations, preparation of opinions on draft legal acts and their interpretation.
The versatility of a number of competencies acquired during the programme along with special legal knowledge, skills and abilities, allow graduates to realize themselves in the fields of communication, management consulting and in organizing project activities.