Rector Oksana Desyatnyuk read out the resolution passed by the Senate of the West Ukrainian National University to award the title of "Doktor honoris causa", an honorary doctorate, to Professor Dr. Hans Schulte-Nölke from Osnabrück University.

The Rector and Vice-Rector Professor Uliana Koruts were guests at Osnabrück University as part of a larger delegation from the West Ukrainian National University. The award was based on Prof. Schulte-Nölke's academic achievements in researching and teaching European private law and his commitment to the long-standing cooperation in research and teaching between the West Ukrainian National University and Osnabrück University. Schulte-Nölke was then presented with the blue robe and doctoral hat of the West Ukrainian National University.

Under normal circumstances, the ceremony would have taken place in the auditorium of the West Ukrainian National University, which is based in the former Austrian city of Ternopil, located between Lviv and Kiev. However, due to the war, the delegation with many members from the Faculty of Law had traveled to Osnabrück to continue the academic cooperation and award the honorary doctorate as part of a four-day conference on the significance and effects of European Union law for its member states and for Ukraine as a candidate country.

The President of Osnabrück University, Prof. Dr. Susanne Menzel, found moving words for the situation in Ukraine and expressed her special thanks that the numerous guests from Ukraine had made the conference and the glamorous award ceremony possible despite the difficult times. She reported that Osnabrück University alone had given more academics and their families from Ukraine a new academic home than any other university in Germany as part of the Philipp Schwartz Initiative for Refugee Researchers, namely a total of nine, including three law professors from the West Ukrainian National University.

In his words of thanks, Schulte-Nölke expressed above all his admiration for how the researchers and teachers at Ukrainian universities are persevering in their difficult situation and continuing to work on the realization of the rule of law and the adaptation of Ukrainian law to the values and requirements of the European Union. "You are creating a shining counter-model to the Russian government's mockery of the law and the hateful crimes of its soldiers," he said to applause. "I am very grateful for the great privilege of working with you, I am gaining a great deal for my academic work and I very much hope that we will soon be able to continue this in peace and freedom in Ternopil," Schulte-Nölke continued.

Further information for editors:
Prof. Dr. Hans Schulte-Nölke, Osnabrück University
School of Law
schulte-noelke@uos.de