Juvenile justice reform
Research on age standards, diversion, restorative approaches, transfer to adult court, procedural safeguards, and measurable system performance.
Founder & Managing Director
Hanna Kotyk
Comparative legal researcher and policy author working at the intersection of juvenile justice, child protection, legislative systematization, and evidence-informed institutional reform.
Profile
Connecting comparative scholarship with practical legal-policy design.
Hanna Kotyk is the Founder and Managing Director of Juvenile Justice Innovation Initiative LLC, the Michigan-based legal research and publishing company developing the National Juvenile Justice Legal Research & Resource Platform.
Her research focuses on how legal systems organize, codify, and implement rules affecting children and young people. She examines juvenile justice and child-protection frameworks, international standards, legislative fragmentation, legal technique, and the design of practical tools that can support policy development and institutional decision-making.
Her current flagship project is the Model Juvenile Justice Act for States, a modular framework accompanied by detailed Commentary and an Analytical Report. The three-part suite connects model statutory language with interpretive guidance, implementation conditions, measurable indicators, and a pathway for state-level adaptation.
EducationMaster's degree in Law, National University “Odesa Law Academy”; U.S. educational evaluation confirms a Master's in Law equivalency. Hanna also completed postgraduate doctoral studies (aspirantura) at International Humanitarian University in Odesa, Ukraine. She completed the academic program but was unable to defend her dissertation after the full-scale war in Ukraine began.
Research RoleComparative Legal Researcher · Policy Author · Founder & Managing Director
Doctoral ResearchCandidate dissertation: “Systematization and Codification of Juvenile Legislation of Ukraine.”
Research Focus
A coherent body of work, not isolated publications.
Child protection and international standards
Analysis of children's rights, international legal standards, trafficking prevention, and national legal implementation.
Legislative systematization
Work on codification, consolidation, incorporation, legal composition, and the organization of fragmented normative material.
Practical policy tools
Development of model statutory language, explanatory commentary, implementation analysis, comparative references, and research resources.
Selected Outputs
Research translated into usable formats.
The Initiative organizes Hanna Kotyk's scholarship into materials that can be read, compared, adapted, and evaluated.
Flagship Framework
Model Juvenile Justice Act for States
An eight-module framework supported by Commentary and an Analytical Report.
Explore the project Scholarly CollectionNine Research Articles
English-language research on juvenile legislation, legal systematization, child protection, and international standards.
Browse publications Featured PresentationProtecting Children's Rights During Armed Conflict
An 18-slide analysis of the case of Ukraine, international legal safeguards, and practical response pathways.
View the presentationResearch and policy authorship, not legal practice.
Hanna Kotyk is presented on this website as a comparative legal researcher and policy author. Juvenile Justice Innovation Initiative LLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice, attorney services, or legal representation.