Statehood and the Oath: An Educational Journey as a Way Back to the Essence
Statehood and the Oath: An Educational Journey as a Way Back to the Essence
Statehood is impossible without people who uphold it every day through law, responsibility, and service to society. Lawyers play a special role in this process — they ensure the rule of law, protect human rights and freedoms, and maintain the stability of the legal order.
An important symbol of a lawyer’s professional responsibility is the oath — a solemn commitment to act with integrity, impartiality, and in the interests of the state and the Ukrainian people. At the same time, the oath is not merely a formality, but a value-based compass that brings together professional ethics, ideas of justice, and service to the state.
It is around these questions that the JustGroup team, together with their guides — philosopher Oleksandr Filonenko and founder of Cowo.Guru Andrii Melnyk — embarked on their first educational journey, “Statehood and the Oath.”
From Program to Journey
The idea for this journey emerged from the program exploring a lawyer’s vocation (2024, 2025) as a natural continuation of conversations about meaning, virtues, and one’s subjective position within the profession.
This time, we chose a new format — not a lecture or a discussion, but an educational journey that we experienced together as a shared process.
“At JustGroup, we proceed from the assumption that adults grow through observation, reflection, dialogue, and the practice of non-linear thinking. That is why we seek formats that allow us to slow down — to feel, to listen, to ask questions, and to find our own answers,”
— says Vasylyna Yavorska, Head of JustGroup.
Route: Spaces of Statehood
The focus of this journey was statehood and the oath. We began at the Golden Gate — a symbolic entry point into Ukraine’s thousand-year history. Our route led through Kachanivka, Chernihiv, and Baturyn — places where different periods of Ukrainian statehood have left their mark.
These were not merely locations, but spaces that allow one to see statehood as the result of decisions, responsibility, and human choice. The Transfiguration Cathedral and the Collegium in Chernihiv, the Baturyn Fortress, and the palace of Kyrylo Rozumovskyi — in these places, one can especially feel continuity and understand how ideas, individuals, and collective effort shape a state over time.
The People of This Journey
Nearly 20 practitioners from across the legal community took part in the journey — judges, prosecutors, investigators, detectives, and lawyers. They came with diverse professional backgrounds, yet shared a common willingness to think, to question, and to seek answers not in instructions, but within themselves and in dialogue with others.
“Education and intellectual development of Ukrainians can preserve and advance our statehood. In the legal profession, it is essential not only to deepen professional competencies, but also to consciously engage with the mission of the profession and the values that guide decision-making. Joint exploration of statehood, national heritage, and history — as well as the search for shared meanings — can become a foundation for transforming both legal professionals and institutions,”
— says Yuliia Usenko from the Office of the Prosecutor General.
For many participants, this journey became an opportunity to look at their professional role differently — not only through function, but through responsibility and inner choice.
“A formative space — even brief contact with it — plays a crucial role in the long-term, strategic development of both a legal professional and a citizen,”
— notes Tymur Koval, investigator at the Security Service of Ukraine.
It was also an experience of community — a space where complex issues can be discussed without haste and without ready-made answers.
“It has become clearer to me how faith in one’s heart, active engagement, and the desire to do what is right—that is, to practice virtue — should come together in a person,”
— shares Maryna Bondarenko, a judge from Kyiv.
The Oath as a Conscious Choice
During this journey, we spoke about the oath not as a formality, but as a personal choice. At the beginning of a professional path, these words often sound like an obligation — spoken or signed without being fully lived through. With time comes experience — and with it, the need to return to these words and rethink them.
We see this format as an opportunity for such a return — when a person can relate the text of the oath to who they are today and consciously ask themselves: am I ready to uphold it, and for what purpose?
We are grateful to those participants who, within the community, chose to speak the words of the oath again — this time as a personal decision. For some, it was the first time they truly experienced these words, rather than simply signing a document.
This moment, in the hall of the Rozumovskyi Palace, will stay with us for a long time.
Acknowledgements and Continuation
This educational journey became, for us, a way of returning to the essence — to those inner anchors that shape not only professional actions, but also one’s way of being within a community and serving statehood.
We are sincerely grateful to Oleksandr Filonenko, Andrii Melnyk, and Heorhii Kovalenko for guiding us on this path.
We also thank all participants — for their willingness to be present in this process with honesty, attentiveness, and openness. We believe this is only the beginning — both for this format and for a broader conversation about statehood, the oath, and the role of legal professionals today.
