Department of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure

History

 The Department of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure was established in September 1991. The first head of the department was Leonid Malakhov, Candidate of Juridical Sciences and Associate Professor. In December 1994, it was decided to establish two independent departments: “Criminal Law” and “Criminal Procedure and Criminalistics”. Lidiya Izhnina, Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor was selected as the head of the second department. In March 1997, Galina Petrova, Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor (Since 2004 Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Professor), was appointed to hold the post of the head of the department of Criminal Law. In June 2014, both departments were merged into the Department of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure chaired by Lidiya Izhnina.

About the department

 27 teachers work at the department, including: 5 professors, 16 associate professors, 1 research assistant, 1 research officer and 4 laboratory specialists.

Dissertation Council for Doctor and Candidate of law degrees for the specialty of Criminal Law and Criminology was opened in 2005. It existed until 2007 and examined 4 doctoral and 27 candidate’s dissertations. The Dissertation Council on the specialty of Criminal Procedure worked since 2010 until 2012.

Department takes an active part in the implementation of training programs for law enforcement agencies in France, the Netherlands and the USA (the European court of Justice, the Council of Europe, the international Hague Court, U.S. state department, etc.).

In order to implement the principle of combining theory and practice Department collaborates and engages in educational process highly skilled practitioners from the Nizhny Novgorod regional court, FSB in Nizhny Novgorod region, Department of regional tariffs service of Nizhny Novgorod region, Prosecutors regional office of Nizhni Novgorod region, etc.

Leader

 The head of the department is Lidiya Izhnina, Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor, award winner of “Lawyer of the Year” in the nomination “Legal education and upbringing”, Honorary Worker of higher professional education of the Russian Federation.

The sphere of scientific interests: Human rights in the criminal procedure and guarantees of its implementation; problems of criminal procedure and of the evidence theory, legal status of the council for defense.

Science

The Department conducts research work: teachers participate in international, all-Russian, regional scientific conferences; in the preparation and publication of Comments to the Criminal Code of Russian Federation and scientific publications in different publication sources.

Each member of the department works under certain scientific direction and has its own scientific interests.

One of the most important scientific directions of the department is the protection of rights and legitimate interests of citizens in criminal law and procedure at the present stage in Russian Federation. On this subject focus P. Marfitsin, A. Agutin, G. Petrova, I. Tarasov.

The sphere of scientific interests of Pavel Marfitsin (Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Professor) covers legal techniques in the criminal proceedings, its development in case of improving the effectiveness of criminal procedure, ensuring the rights and legitimate interests of participants in criminal proceedings; identification and resolution of key problems of the pre-trial phase of criminal proceedings; legal status of officials engaged in the proceedings, as well as persons involved in the criminal proceedings, issues of its improvement.

Aleksandr Agutin (Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Professor) is working on principles of criminal procedure, problems of evidence theory, problems of prosecutorial capacity and criminal prosecution.

Works of Galina Petrova (Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Professor, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation) are devoted to problems of Criminal law, concept and means of the criminal law regulation.

Ivan Tarasov (Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor) applies principles of criminal procedure, evidence in criminal proceedings, problems of national security of the Russian Federation.

Other important scientific direction of the department is the protection of citizens’ rights in criminal law and procedure at the present stage in European countries. At this subject are working S. Tikhonova and L. Obidina.

Svetlana Tikhonova (Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor, Member of the Russian Criminological Association) is working on problems of developing concepts of criminal laws (lawmaking ideas) and designing of Russian and foreign codified criminal laws (system of rubricating and iconic symbols, composition of normative material, legal structures, legal references, legislative stylistics, legal terminology, legislative definitions, legal axioms, legal presumptions, legal fictions, etc.).

The sphere of scientific interests of Ludmila Obidina (Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor) includes problems of ensuring the rights and legitimate interests of criminal process participants on the side of defense (suspect, accused, including minors); questions pf participation of council for defense, legal representative, psychologist and translator in the criminal process; problems of  establishment and development of the juvenile justice in Russian Federation; modern development of criminal procedure form (problem issues of reduced pre-trial and judicial proceedings under the current criminal procedure legislation).

Ludmila Obidina is a co-author of the project of the Union of Translators of Russia, a draft document that envisages the creation of a single information base containing information on individuals who have successfully passed a qualification examination, thereby confirming their translator skills. The register should contain up-to-date information necessary to find a specialist translator of a required qualification.

The third scientific direction of the department is study of the problems of disclosure and investigation of crimes in the light of the latest changes in criminal law and criminal procedure of the Russian Federation. V. Tolstolutskiy, S. Krepysheva and A. Rogozhkin are currently conducting a research into this subject.                                                                     

Works of Vladimir Tolstolutskiy (Doctor of Medical Sciences, Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Professor) are devoted to the forensic techniques in the investigation process. Vladimir Tolstolutskiy is the creator of a special computer program “Forver – investigator”, that provides the basis for the orientation part of the investigator’s actions.

Svetlana Krepysheva (Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor) is working on the investigation of crimes in the sphere of illegal trafficking of aquatic biological resources and crimes related to human trafficking and the use of slave labor.

Aleksey Rogozhkin (Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor) is researching principles of criminal procedure and problems related to the functioning of law-enforcement bodies.

Structure