Constitutional and legal aspects of implementing the right to higher education under emergency legal regimes: a comparative legal study

The article presents a comprehensive comparative legal study of the constitutional and legal mechanisms for ensuring the right to higher education under the conditions of emergency legal regimes. It reveals a complex of systemic challenges faced by the higher education sector during periods of martial law or a state of emergency, including significant restrictions on physical access to educational institutions, narrowing of academic freedom, disruption of the continuity of the educational process, and transformation of traditional mechanisms for safeguarding educational rights. It is argued that the right to education, although not included in the list of absolute (inalienable) rights, should be regarded as a constitutional value requiring a special regime of protection, as it performs a key function in stabilizing public life amidst crisis transformations, contributing to the preservation of social capital, institutional continuity, and democratic development. The article provides a comparative analysis of legal and institutional approaches to ensuring the continuity of the educational process in the context of armed conflicts, using the examples of Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Colombia. It concludes that the most effective models are those that combine normative flexibility, infrastructural security of educational institutions, the use of distance learning formats, and the application of international legal mechanisms for protecting the right to education. Based on foreign experience, the article formulates proposals for improving the national legislation of Ukraine, including the expansion of the powers of educational authorities in emergency situations, the creation of a legal framework for the operational management of the educational process during crises, and the implementation of a comprehensive state policy for the post-war recovery of the higher education system. The strategic necessity of developing a national model of resilient higher education is emphasized as a systemic tool capable of ensuring the functioning of the educational process under conditions of deep social upheaval, emergency legal regimes, and prolonged security threats. This entails the need for comprehensive institutional and regulatory preparedness of the higher education system to respond to crises, including not only the technical adaptation of educational formats and content, but also the guarantee of citizens’ inalienable educational rights as an expression of constitutional humanism. Ensuring uninterrupted access to higher education during wartime is framed not merely as a human rights obligation of the state, but as a fundamental component of national security, social cohesion, and a long-term strategy for the restoration of statehood in the post-conflict period.