PROFESSOR BUTLER CONGRATULATES FORMER VISITING PROFESSOR ELECTED AS PEOPLE’S DEPUTY TO VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE
August 2019 — Professor William E. Butler recently extended the Dickinson Law community’s congratulations to Professor Dr. Alexander Merezhko on being elected as a people’s deputy to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (parliament) in July. Dr. Merezhko was a Visiting Professor at Dickinson Law during the 2000-2001 academic year under the Junior Faculty Development Program inaugurated by the late Emeritus Professor Louis del Duca. Professor Butler first met Dr. Merezhko through his colleague, Professor Katherine Pearson.
Upon returning to Ukraine, Dr. Merezhko successively defended his higher doctorate (LL.D.) and taught at universities in Ukraine, Poland, and India. He has published a number of major works in Ukraine on public and private international law, legal theory, and comparative jurisprudence, including several articles in journals associated with Dickinson Law through Professor Butler, the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law (founding editor, Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History, 2016-; and founding co-editor, Journal of Comparative Law, 2005-).
Dr. Merezhko’s recent articles include “Petrazycki’s Psychological Theory of Law and Economy” in the Journal of Comparative Law (no. 1, 2019) and “Petrazycki’s Psychological Theory of Private International Law” in Jus Gentium (no. 1, 2019)—both pioneering pieces which introduce aspects of the noted Russo/Polish legal philosophyer Leon Petrazycki (1867-1931) to the English-speaking world. He also serves on the editorial board of Jus Gentium.
Last spring, Dr. Merezhko served as a senior advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Today, Dr. Merezhko is looking into the possible formation in Kyiv of an “American University of Ukraine” and is involved in various law reform exercises underway.
Professor William Butler is the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law; Emeritus Professor of Comparative Law, University College London; and Foreign Member, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine; and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences; Associate Member, International Academy of Comparative Law; member, American Law Institute. He recently published International Law in the Russian Legal System (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Chapter 11 in T. E. Carbonneau, W. E. Butler, and H. A. Blair, International Litigation: Cases and Materials (3d ed.; West, 2020).