Department of Commercial Law
Vladimir F. Popondopulo,
Professor, Doctor of Legal Sciences Department Chair
History
The origins of the Department of Commercial Law go back to the 1850s when M.M.
Mikhailov, Distinguished Ordinary Professor of Saint Petersburg State University
taught a course on trade law at the Faculty of Law at Saint Petersburg University.
In 1945, a Department of Collective Farm and Land Law was formed (the department
chair was first Prof. D.L. Dembo and then Prof. A.M. Kalandadze) which, in December
1985, was reorganized into the Department of Economic Law (Department Chair: Prof.
A.A. Sobchak).
The Department of Commercial Law was founded on the basis of the Department of
Economic Law in August 1992. This reorganization was based on the transfer to a
market economy for which private (including commercial) law takes a predominant
role.
Highly trained specialists who combine both academic and teaching work with legal
practice work at the department. Among the teachers at the department, there are
private practice lawyers and attorneys at law, law firm employees (including from
international law firms), legal directors of companies including transnational companies,
a retired federal district judge, arbitration judges, and other practicing lawyers.
There are three doctors of legal sciences and professors and seven candidates
of legal sciences and docents working at the department. The department is planning
on preparing for the defense of two doctors of legal sciences among its staff in
the near future. Over 600 works have been published by the department's academics
with a volume of over 1,000 p.l. Three doctoral dissertations and thirty-four candidatoral
dissertations have been defended at the department.
Prof. A.A. Sobchak, Doctor of Legal Sciences, who published over 100 academic
works on civil and commercial law chaired the department until September 1991. A.A.
Sobchak was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and then as the Mayor of Saint
Petersburg. V.F. Popondopulo has chaired the Department of Commercial Law since
1992.
The departments primary goals are:
- Academic and methodological work through the teaching of primary courses
and topical specialized courses (Banking Law, Insurance Law, Securities Law,
etc.);
- Intense academic research of the problems of entrepreneurial law and the
practice of its application;
- Forming legal throught during the study process and academic research.
Academic Themes:
The most promising academic concentrations of the department are: researching
the problems in banking law, entrepreneurial rights, privatization, legal regulation
of the securities market, commercial law abroad, and issues in economics and law.
International Ties
The department has participated in a number of international conferences and
the majority of the department's teachers have been on secondment abroad: in institutions
of higher education, in state agencies, and in business and international organizations.
The department has participated in the international academic projects TEMPUS/TACIS
and Rule of Law. As a part of this, the study guide 'Competition Law (V.F. Popondopulo),
Saint Petersburg, 1995, 8 pages and the monograph: Defending Entrepreneurs’ Rights
During Court in Cases on Insolvency (Bankruptcy) (A.Y. Bushev, O.Y. Skvortsov, D.V.
Khokhlov), Saint Petersburg, 2003. The department’s employees have also actively
particiated in World Bank projects, including the International Finance Corporation
(IFC), a member of the World Bank Group – Corporate Governance in Russia (A.Y. Bushev,
O.A. Makarova).
The academic work of the department’s teachers, including monographical work,
have been published in well-known foreign publications. Through international corporation,
18 volumes of literature have been received and over 20 copies of a unique academic
and practical textbook prepared by IFC experts on corporate governance in both Russian
and English were transferred to the library
Tel.: +7 (812) 329-28-26
E-mail: commlaw@jurfak.spb.ru