In January, Tetiana Tsurkovska came to Miami Law from Kyiv, Ukraine, to enroll in Miami Law's White and Case International Arbitration LL.M., a natural step to broaden her experience in the field. Little did the 23-year-old know that her country, family, and friends would be at war and running for their lives within months. The University of Miami School of Law established a fund to help support UM law students from Ukraine.
What made you first want to study law?
Since prep school, I have been determined to become a diplomat. When I was in high school, in 2014, the Revolution of Dignity unfolded, and then Russia started the war in the Eastern part of Ukraine. I changed my preferences and chose law. Although the decision was rather a guess, I think deep down, I knew that I would have a strong desire to fight Russia in the way I could – with my brains. They say that Ukraine has a strategy of 'lawfare' as well.
How was the experience of your studies at the Kyiv National University of Taras Shevchenko?
I loved it. I studied at the separate Institute of International Relations, famous for raising politicians and diplomats. Our professors are true legal professionals. And my university is considered one of the best national universities in several fields. One of the main pluses was thorough education in foreign languages. One of the main disadvantages was an absence of a modern library containing foreign literature, which is essential for the institute to train professionals.
My favorite part of education (which is strange because it was online due to COVID) was the English-speaking master's program in International Litigation and Arbitration created by a highly respected Ukrainian judge of the European Court of Human Rights Mykola Gnatovsky. The leading Ukrainian practitioners taught us. That was an extremely rewarding experience.
Why did you choose the University of Miami? What is the difference?
I searched for an LL.M in foreign countries and looked through dozens of programs. The Miami Law offers caught my attention because of the professors: Albert Jan van den Berg, Gary Born, and Jan Paulsson. If you are in the international arbitration field, you understand how powerful those names are. So, honestly, Miami Law was my only target; I did not submit documents anywhere else.
The main difference with the studies in Ukraine is that professors choose a more case-based approach. And this is how students learn the best. I also think that an average student in the U.S. law school dedicates more time to prepare for classes.
What is the situation in your family?
My family – parents and two brothers, a sister-in-law, and a dog – lives in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. We live in the very center, near the Ministry of Defense, a military target. The first six days were a nightmare for my family. On the sixth day, they left for Chernivtsi, one of the safest Ukrainian cities. This decision was taken very fast; they packed their things in 20 minutes. That was approximately the same time Russians started killing civilians on the roads. Mom said that dad had never driven so fast as that day.
It is truly hard to realize that you may lose those you love the most forever at any point. Just because someone in the underground decided to compliment his ego. That is a scary unnecessary experience, both for my family and me. As I am writing the answer, my family is returning to Kyiv after three months of living in another city.
What is the one thing you want Americans to understand about Ukraine?
Russia has never been a friend of Ukraine. No "brotherly nations" exist. Would you call 300 years of suppression a friendship? I don't think so.
We survived numerous prohibitions on using our language, bans on our culture, and several waves of genocide (*Holodomor: The Soviet Union starved to death from 4 to 10.5 million Ukrainians in 1932-33, more than the current population of Austria or Switzerland). We will survive the genocide that is going on now as well!
As to the language: in Ukraine, we speak Ukrainian, but all of us know Russian. And knowing Russian was not our choice but a legacy of long-term suppression of our cultural identity. If you say to me that usage of the Russian language can be a reason to join Ukraine to Russia, I will ask you in return: so, should we join the French-speaking part of Switzerland to France, then?
What do you say when people ask you how to help?
Follow the news about Azovstal, Mariupol, and other occupied cities. Stay aware. Help Ukrainian militaries, prisoners of war, and civilians, illegally taken to Russia to return home. Our brave soldiers risked their lives to extract people of different nations (Americans including) from Afghanistan* in 2021 when Canadian and American operations failed. This is when Ukrainian soldiers and Ukrainians need to be ***extracted and kept safe. Help Azovstal, help Mariupol people right now!
I want to share a message that I received from Valeryi, my university groupmate from Mariupol: Concerning the killed, there are data that there are not 25,000+ but 60,000+ civilians. Plus, almost 100,000 were forcibly taken out to Russia. Today [16 May 2022], I just talked to the wounded from Azov. I will share a couple of facts: the U.N. and the Red Cross did not come to Azovstal to pick up people [evacuation of civilians in May]. In fact, people were handed over through the occupiers, and these occupiers spat at the U.N., they anyway subjected people to filtering [degrading human treatment] and interrogations; people there are in inhumane conditions, sorry, but they are rotting alive, there are more than 1000 dead and 600 wounded; it is impossible to be in the city right now, the smell of corpses, the absence of everything, and the ban on even leaving the house.
I know your focus has been on investor-state dispute settlements. Has the invasion made you think about and/or change the direction of your career arc (for instance, have you decided to focus on a subject that has grown out of the war, for example, advocacy or immigration of refugees)?
Yes, I returned to my roots. I started with international law because of the international relations side of the story (remember my desire to be a diplomat?). I have never stepped out of it, really: investor-State arbitrations involve issues of international public law. Although I keep focusing on investment arbitration, I am also diving deep into international public law, especially international humanitarian law/international human rights law.
It must be unimaginably hard to be far from home with so much uncertainty. How are you able to follow events in Ukraine?
Right now, I need to limit how much I read about Ukraine. I am not able to function in any other way. The first week, I woke up with my phone and went to bed with it. I had nightmares. First two months, I checked the news several times per hour. That makes you crazy: you cannot embrace the scale of atrocities. Who are those people who did this? Are those things even people, humans? You are also isolated from others: cheerful, happy others who cannot think about war 24/7 as you do.
Your mind shifts when you stop constantly reading about the war. You notice how much people support you and Ukrainians in general.
Right now, I have a chat with 30 people I know personally. We exchange news when we see something. This is how I stay aware of what is going on. I also follow the official pages of our governmental officials, defense agencies, and armed forces. I receive notices of shelling alerts.
Do you know your path forward, or is this changing day-to-day?
I had my life planned for several years ahead. I don't do that anymore. None of us does. It turned out that all the plans could be crushed in one morning. I have some goals that have not changed, though. I know for sure that I will work for the benefit of Ukraine. This is my mission and a mission of many more of my friends.
*Holodomor Terror-Famine – The Holodomor Famine has been recognized as "genocide" against Ukrainians carried out by the Soviet Union by 15+ countries.
**Ukraine participated in NATO's ISAF mission Operation Enduring Freedom.
***Current situation in Mariupol and the Azovstal steel plant.
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