Belarusian legal journal "Praŭnik" is an initiative of Belarusian law students and young lawyers launched in November, 2004 as an On-line project. In November, 2005 we introduced our first printed issue which is regarded as a part of that versatile initiative. The main rationale of the project is to make an attempt to overcome the colonial thinking of a great portion of the older generation of Belarusian lawyers. The young lawyers, who contribute to this journal, aim at building their legal outlook grounding on the “Belarusian-European” legal paradigm rather then on the “Russian-Soviet” one.

Belarusians have deep and rich legal tradition which stems from the Statutes of Grand Duchy of Litva1 (1522,1569,1588), written in the old Belarusian language, which were the most progressive examples of medieval codification of law in the Europe of that time. It is interesting to note that the modern identity of Belarusians as a nation has been formulated to a large extent by professional lawyers: from Kastus Kalinoŭski and Francisak Bahusevic to Ivan Luckievic, Raman Skirmunt and others.

Another important goal of the journal is to cover the lack of legal information in the Belarusian language. Today we face quite a strange situation when legal literature, judicial analytics and legal news are represented almost exclusively in Russian. Unfortunately, Belarusian authorities do not encourage practical use of the Belarusian language, limiting it almost exclusively to folklore. Moreover, since 1995 there has been a stable decline in the number of legal courses taught in Belarusian in public and private universities of Belarus. As a matter of fact, only the university courses of “History of State and Law of Belarus” are given (still not always) in Belarusian. The process of judicial terminology research in Belarusian is so slow that during the last decade not a single Belarusian legal dictionary was published. This project will hopefully contribute to the renascence of the Belarusian language in the sphere of law.

It was decided to make this edition bilingual with regard to the necessity of presenting contemporary Belarusian legal thought abroad. English was chosen to perform this role as an indisputable lingua franca.

Goals of the project:

• To unite the Belarusian-speaking students of law as well as practicing lawyers and legal scholars, who are committed to the development of the NATIONAL legal school;
• To provide a tribune for young specialists of law and political science, who wish to think Belarus-centered and critically;
• To popularize and refine juridical analysis and Belarusian legal terminology by means of providing legal texts, active forum discussions and an on-line dictionary;
• To share practical legal experience by means of maintaining a forum for discussion and regular on-line consulting.

The Editorial Board encourages publishing new and critical articles and opinions, which might not correspond to the opinion of the editorial board. Despite the fact that our project is primarily run by the students of Belarusian State University, we welcome all those willing to contribute to our pages in Belarusian or English. We are looking forward to seeing your texts, proposals and comments. Our e-mail address is praunik@praunik.org.