About the University

Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MSAL) is the flagship of the domestic legal education and one of the leading legal research centers in Russia and neighboring countries. From its foundation in 1931 to the present day, Moscow State Law Academy has gone from the Central Correspondence Courses of Soviet Law to the largest law school in the country, which implements programs for pre-university training, secondary, higher and additional education, and active research work is underway.

Over the 90 years of its history, the University has changed several names and only in November 2015 received its current name - O.E. Kutafin (MSAL). To date, the University has trained and graduated over 180,000 specialists with higher legal education, including many well-known, honored lawyers and outstanding scientists - many of them today make up the legal elite of the country.

The Moscow State Law University is already shaping the future of the legal profession, preserving the traditions laid down by the teachers of the famous Soviet Law part-time University (VYuZI). The teaching staff of the University pays close attention to writing textbooks, teaching aids, methodological materials for the preparation and conduct of all types of classes, workshops, collections of tasks, diagrams, etc.

The educational process and research work at the University is provided by 13 institutes, 3 branches, 38 departments. There are more than 20 scientific schools and directions, among which there are absolutely unique ones: corporate, competition, sports law. New Institutes are being created (the Institute of Business Law, the Institute of Modern Applied Law, the Institute of Forensic Expertise, etc.), which have no analogues not only in our country, but also abroad. Only in 2021, a number of strategic academic units were created at the university, such as the Digital State Laboratory, the Media Security Laboratory, the Legal Tech Laboratory and others. The teaching staff of the University includes more than 900 teachers, among whom there is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, over 180 doctors and 550 candidates of legal sciences, more than 350 associate professors. Currently, 15,000 students study at the university, including about 400 graduate students, applicants, doctoral students. Moscow State Law University is the only law school in Russia that has five dissertation councils that defend candidate and doctoral dissertations in all legal specialties.

Every year, the University organizes and conducts more than 200 international, all-Russian and regional scientific and practical events, including the traditional Kutafin Readings and the Moscow Legal Forum.

For a significant contribution to the training of qualified specialists in the field of jurisprudence in 2011, the University was awarded the Certificate of Honor of the Government of the Russian Federation and the Certificate of Honor of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. For the successes achieved and high performance in professional activities in 2014, the staff of the University was thanked by the President of the Russian Federation.