The Department of Criminal Law and Procedure was established in March 1996 (by resolution of the Academic Council of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University). In connection with the establishment of the Department of Justice, the department was renamed the Department of Criminal Law in October 2008.
The Department of Criminal Law was established on October 16, 2008, based on the decision of the Academic Council of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University dated September 30, 2008, as a result of the reorganization of the Department of Criminal Law and Process by separating specialized procedural disciplines from the Department of Criminal Law and Process and transferring them to the newly created Department of Judiciary. The department is a structural subdivision of the university and the Law Institute, which conducts educational and methodological work in several related academic disciplines of the criminal law cycle and carries out scientific and research activities in this direction.
The heads of the Department of Criminal Law at various times were: Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of National Academy of Sciences Viktor Klymovych Hryshchuk (1996-1997); Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored lawyer of Ukraine Viktor Davydovych Basai (1997-2008); Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine Fris Pavlo Lvovych (2008-2022).
From the beginning of the establishment of the Department of Criminal Law and Process, many scientists worked at the Department, among them: the head of the department, Professor V. D. Basai (1997-2008), and Professor P. L. Fris. (1996-2007), Kyrychenko O.A. (2001-2005), associate professors Melnyk P.V. (2001-2008), Korol V.V. (1998-2009), Zagurskyi O.Yu. (2002-2015), A.V. Kuchera (1998-2009), I.B. Medytskyi (2002-2007), I.V. Barchuk (Trufan) (2005-2009), Romanyuk A.B. (2002-2008), Koshchynets V.V. (2002-2008), Tomin S.V. (2001-2008), Ostroglyad O.V. (2002-2007), Yurchyshyn V.D. (2006-2008), S.V. Kovalchuk (2006-2008), I.G. Kharchenko (2000-2018), I.V. Vitovska (2005-2006), senior teacher Dvylyuk M.M. (1996-1999), L.S. Kulchak (2004-2008), M.M. Tymchyshyn (1997-1999).
Practical workers were also involved in the educational process of the department, in particular, A.V. Rybak of internal affairs bodies. (2000-2004), prosecutor’s office V.S. Sokolov. (2006-2008), Ivanov M.I. tax service, Mnyshenko, I.E., attorney’s office. (2000-2004), I.P. Kovalyuk court (2007-2008), V.M. Teplytsky forensic expert institutions (2002-2008), O.V. Savyuk (2008-2010), other higher education institutions, L. Fedorak .M. (2009-2010), Steblinska O.S. (2009-2010).
After the reorganization, Professor Fries P.L. headed the Department of Criminal Law.
Under the direct scientific guidance of Professor P.L., A scientific school for the study of problems of combating crime was formed in Fries, within which 13 candidates and five doctoral theses were defended.
When the Department of Criminal Law was created, the full-time employees were: Professor P. L. Fris, Associate Professors O. Yu. Zagurskyi, I. G. Kharchenko, Senior Lecturer I. V. Kozych, Yu. I. Mykytyn, O. Yu. Petechel, and I. Bosovych Z.Ya., assistants Kaduk S.V., Smushak O.M. Since 2008, Yu.I. Mykytyn, at the same time, was the deputy director of the Educational Scientific Law Institute (currently, he is the Director of the Educational Scientific Law Institute).
In the process of scientific development, the department’s teaching staff is qualitatively expanding. Thus, in 2011, a candidate of legal sciences, associate professor I.B. Medytskyi, who previously headed the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of the Carpathian Law Institute of the Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, was appointed to the position of associate professor in 2011.
In addition, graduates of the Vasyl Stefanyk National University become teachers of the Department. During 2010-2020, the candidate of legal sciences, S.M. Krul, worked as a teacher and then as an associate professor of the Department. Before that, since 2009, he was the head of the criminalistic training ground of the Law Institute of the Vasyl Stefanyk National University. Since 2014, candidate of legal sciences V. V. Shpilaryevich, a senior laboratory technician in the Department since 2009, has been working as a teacher and then as an associate professor of the Department. After completing their postgraduate studies at Vasyl Stefanyk National University, M.O. Krasiy worked as an assistant at the department (2016-2018) and V.I. Potyak (2017-2019). Currently, a graduate student in the Ph.D. program in the Department – M.O. Iatsyna (since 2021), working as an assistant at the Department.
From 2008 to 2017, Smushak O.M. worked as a senior lecturer of the department; before that, from 2002-2005 worked as a senior lecturer of the Department of Criminal Law and Process of the Law Institute of the Ternopil Academy of National Economy.
Scientific and practical workers of other institutions were involved in teaching specialized disciplines based on cooperation. Thus, leading the field “Forensic Medicine” was carried out by a candidate of medical sciences, Ivaniv N.Ya. (Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University).
Kuzyk L.O. forensic department (Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination), candidate of legal sciences, associate professor O.V. Savyuk. (Prykarpattia Faculty of the National Academy of Internal Affairs).
On an internal part-time basis, the head of the Forensic Center, M.M. Tymchyshyn, taught specialized disciplines. (2008-2014), director of the Law College of Vasyl Stefanyk National University Serediuk T.I. (2002-2011).
Currently, the head of the Department is a Doctor of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor Ihor Vasyliovych Kozych.
Seven teachers work in the Department. Among them: are Professor P.L. Fries, Professor I.B. Medytskyi, four candidates of legal sciences, and associate Professor: Yu.I. Mykytyn, O. Yu. Petechel, S.V. Kaduk, V.V. Shpilaryevich and assistant Ph.D. M.O. Iatsyna.
Part-timely, specialized disciplines are taught by the Director of the Educational Scientific Law Institute, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor, and Honored Lawyer of Ukraine Yu.I. Mykytyn, Doctor of legal sciences, Associate Professor, head of the Department of Justice, Professor Yu.V. Kernyakevich-Tanasiychuk, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor V.M. Voloshinovych.
Auxiliary activities for organizational and technical support of the educational process are carried out by the senior laboratory assistant of the Department – I.M. Danylchenko.
2013, a Master’s degree-level program was opened based in the Department. Since 2017, the Department has offered a Master’s degree in specialization 05, «Criminal-legal protection of social relations,» full-time and part-time.
In 1999, the Department of Criminal Law and Procedure (now the Department of Policy in crime control and criminal law) opened a postgraduate course on the specialty 12.00.09 – Criminal Procedure and Criminology; forensic examination, which later continued to function at the Department (the last recruitment took place in 2007). The best postgraduate graduates constantly replenish the staff potential of the department. Therefore, I.B. Medytskyi, Yu.I. Mykytyn, O. Yu. Petechel, S.V. Kaduk, I.V. Kozych, and M. O. Iatsyna work as full-time teachers of the Department today, forming the scientific basis of the Department.
Since 2014, the Department of Criminal Law has been operating a postgraduate course on the specialty 12.00.08 – Criminal Law and Criminology; Penal law, since 2018 – 081 “Law.” Today, 17 graduate students study at the graduate school in full-time, part-time, and evening forms of study.
For law students, the Department provides teaching of specialized academic disciplines for full-time and part-time students in the specialty 081 “Law” and several fields of the student’s choice.
All disciplines taught by the Department’s employees are fully equipped with educational, methodical, and informational material, the development and improvement of which are constantly being worked on by the professor-teaching staff of the department. In addition, by the decision of the Academic Council of the Law Institute, an educational and methodological office (304 classrooms) was created at the Department of Policy in crime control and criminal law. All scientific and methodical work is concentrated here; meetings of the department, scientific and systematic seminars of the Department, and scientific and theoretical student circles are held here. The office is equipped with modern multimedia equipment and contains several educational stands for the basic disciplines taught in the Department.
The teaching of the disciplines listed above is primarily based on the results of the scientific and research work of staff members of the Department.
The foundation for the further development of the scientific school of Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine Pavlo Lvovych Fries has been laid at the Department. The representatives of the scientific school are actively developing issues of state policy in the field of fighting crime in general and its subsystems – criminal-legal, criminal-procedural, criminal-executive, and criminological (preventive) approaches.
Scientific school of Professor P. L. Fries. It is represented by: doctors of science – N.A. Savinova, K.B. Marisyuk, Y.V. Kernyakevych-Tanasiychuk, I.B. Medytskyi; I.V. Kozych, candidates of science – V.V. Kondratishina, Yu.I. Mykytyn. , Gabuda A.S., Fedorak L.M., Kozych I.V., Mnyshenko E.S., Shpilaryevich V.V. etc.
Within the scope of the scientific school, the following doctoral dissertations of the Department’s staff members were defended: “Consequences of crime in Ukraine: theoretical and applied foundations” (I.B. Medytskyi, 2021), “Functions of the criminal and legal policy of Ukraine” (I.V. Kozych, 2021) and candidate theses of the department’s teachers: I.B. Medytskyi on the topic “The influence of social factors on crime in the conditions of the formation of the Ukrainian state” (Kyiv National University of Internal Affairs, 2007) and Yu. I. Mykytiyn on the topic “Renewable justice in the criminal process: international experience and prospects for development in Ukraine” (National Academy of the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, 2010), I.V. Kozych “Criminal policy in the field of combating crimes committed with the use of violence” (Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, 2012 .); V.V. Shpilaryevich “Criminal and legal security measures” (Lviv State University of Internal Affairs, 2015); Ph.D. thesis by M.O. Iatsyna «NGOs as subjects of criminological policy”).
At the level of doctoral theses, the problems of the scientific school of the department are developed by: Yu.I. Mykytyn – “Criminal procedural policy of the European Union”; O.Yu. Petechel. – “Aggression: legal and psychological assessment,” V.V. Shpilaryevich. – “Criminal legal policy in the sphere of ensuring the protection of national security of Ukraine.”
The scientific and methodological achievements of the current teaching staff of the department include textbooks, study aids, monographs, educational and methodological works, and scientific articles, including:
Monographs – Fries P.L. “Essay on the history of the criminal law policy of Ukraine” (2005), P. L. Fris. “Criminal and legal policy of the Ukrainian state: theoretical, historical and legal problems” (2005) Fries P.L. “Criminal law of Poland and Ukraine in the context of the European Union” (2008); Fries P.L. “Policy in the fight against crime and human rights” (2009); Medytskyi I.B. “The influence of social factors on crime in the conditions of the formation of the Ukrainian state” (2007); Petechel O.Yu. “Using special psychological knowledge regarding minor participants in the pre-trial investigation” (2011); “Policy in the fight against the crime of Ukraine: theoretical and applied problems,” according to the general Ed. Prof. P.L. Frisa and Prof. V.B. Kharchenko (2016), P. L. Fris, I. V. Kozych, E. M. Hanulyak “Dispositive method of implementing criminal law policy” (2020), I. B. Medytskyi “Consequences of crime in Ukraine: theoretical and applied aspects” (2020); Fries P.L., Shpilaryevich V.V. “Criminal-legal policy in the sphere of regulation of security measures” (2020) Kozych I.V. “Criminal and legal policy: functions and functioning” (2020), Fries P.L. “Ideology of criminal law policy” (2021).
Textbooks: Fries P.L. “Criminal law of Ukraine. General part”: Textbook for students of higher educational institutions. K.: Atika, 2004. 498 p.; Fries P.L. “Criminal law of Ukraine. General part”. 2nd edition, supplemented and revised. Textbook. K.: ATTICA, 2008 512 p.; Fries P.L. “Criminal Law of Ukraine. The general part”: manual. 3rd edition, additions, and revisions. Odesa, Phoenix, 2018. – 394 p.
Study aids recommended by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Ukraine as study aids for students of law higher education institutions of Ukraine: Fries P.L. “Criminal law of Ukraine. General part” (2004); Fries P.L. “Collection of tasks on criminal law. General part” (1998), Fries P.L. “A short dictionary of criminal terms and concepts” (1999), Fries P.L. “Criminal law of Ukraine. General part. In schemes and definitions” (2000), Fries P.L. “Criminal law of Ukraine. Test tasks” (2003), I.B. Medytskyi “Crime Prevention” (2008) and others.
The staff of the Department organizes the annual All-Ukrainian scientific conference, “Politics in the field of fighting crime,” in which leading scientists of Ukraine constantly participate: doctors of legal sciences, professors, academicians of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine Yu.V. Baulin, V.I. Borisov, N.O.Gutorova, V.S.Zelenetskyi, O.M.Kostenko, M.V.Kostytskyi, M.I.Panov, V.P.Tikhiy, doctors of legal sciences, professors, corresponding members of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine V.V. Holina, V.K. Hryshchuk, V.M. Dryomin, O.M. Litvak, V.O. Navrotskyi, E.L. Streltsov, V.O. Tulyakov, V.I. Shakun, Yarmysh O .N., doctors of legal sciences, professors P.S. Berzin, V.P. Yemelyanov, M.I. Melnyk, M.I. Khavronyuk and others.
The Department was involved in developing the Comprehensive Crime Prevention Program in Ivano-Frankivsk until 2020, approved by the decision of the Ivano-Frankivsk City Council dated April 26, 2016, No. 101-5.
At the Department, a student research group, “Actual problems of criminal law regulation,” is constantly active. The work of the circle is carried out in two directions:
1) Theoretical and practical issues of criminal law (assistant professor I.V. Kozych);
2) Actual problems of criminology and legal psychology (associate Professor O.Yu. Petechel).
Students of all courses of the Educational and Scientific Law Institute and the Law Department of Ivano-Frankivsk College are invited to participate in the group’s work.
One of the main ways of approving the scientific results of students is their participation in Olympiads, competitions, and scientific conferences.
To improve the effectiveness of educational and scientific work, the department actively supports business and friendly relations with the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, the Institute of State and Law named after V.M. Koretsky National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of Crime Problems of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, leading Ukrainian higher educational institutions, including departmental ones, as well as related departments of these educational institutions, other scientific schools (Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, etc.). Scientists of the department constantly act as reviewers of scientific publications, opponents in defense of dissertations for obtaining scientific degrees of doctor and candidates of legal sciences.
The Department of Policy in crime control and criminal law cooperates actively with foreign scientific, state, and non-state institutions. Close scientific contacts are maintained with the Faculty of Law of the University in Opole (Poland), the Higher School of Security (Warsaw, Poland), and scientists of the Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland). In 2022, cooperation with the Academy of Justice (Warsaw) in the Republic of Poland began; at the moment, mutual visits of scientific and pedagogical staff of educational institutions have already taken place, areas of cooperation have been determined, and joint scientific works have been developed.
Since 2008, the Department has been implementing a grant project with the Swiss Development and Cooperation Bureau (Bern) support. The project envisages the developing and experimental implementation of a three-level crime prevention model among minors in Ivano-Frankivsk based on a restorative approach to solving the criminal-legal conflict. To ensure the implementation of the project and its performance, the mayor’s order of June 27, 2008, on its support in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, was issued. As a result, for the first time in Ukraine, the elements of a restorative approach in forming policy to combat crime were reflected in the Regional Targeted Crime Prevention Program for 2011-2015, approved by the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Council on March 24, 2011.
The department’s teachers, P.L.Fries, and I.B.Medytsky, have repeatedly participated in the work of international scientific and practical conferences abroad – in Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
Associate Professor of the Department Yu.I. Mykytyn completed an internship at the Polish Mediation Center (Warsaw, 2006); within the framework of grant work in the field of restorative justice in June 2008 – in the Mediation Centers of the cities of Geneva and Zurich (Switzerland); became the winner of the “Open World” program of the US Congress in the direction of “Rule of Law”; in October 2009, he completed an educational internship in the USA. In 2017, a graduate student of the department M.O. Iatsyna, completed an international internship in Pilsen, Czech Republic, where he got acquainted with the peculiarities of the legal policy of the Czech Republic. From November 8 to December 13, 2019, associate professor of the department, a candidate of law. N. V.V. Shpilaryevich completed an internship as part of the program “Internationalization of higher education. Organization of the educational process and innovative methods of learning in higher educational institutions of Poland” based on “Collegium Civitas” University (Warsaw, Republic of Poland). During the internship, there was an introduction to the activity and administration of the “Collegium Civitas” University, areas of specialist training, organization of the educational process, and methods of teaching academic disciplines. From December 13, 2021, to January 13, 2022, the head of the Department of Politics in the Field of Fighting Crime and Criminal Law, Dr. Ju. Ph.D., associate professor I. V. Kozych and professor of the department, Doctor of Jurisprudence. n., associate professor of Medicine I. B. took
participation in the scientific-pedagogical internship “Theory and practice of scientific-pedagogical approaches in education,” which was organized by the ISMA University of Applied Sciences (Riga, Latvia), with the support of the International Science Group. From June 27 to July 29, 2022, Yu.I. Mykytyn, a professor in the Department, underwent an internship in
Western University named after V. Goldisha in Arad, Arad, Romania, on the topic “Legal sciences: criminal law and criminal process. Experience of the countries of the European Union”.
As part of international cooperation, the department organizes speeches by famous scientists from foreign countries before teachers and students of the Law Institute. For example, in September 2011, Jan Widacki, doctor of habilitation and professor of criminal law at the Andrzej Frych Modzewski Krakow Academy, gave lectures to the students of the Law Institute on the problems of modern assessment of crime and prospects for combating it. In October 2011, professor of criminology Christoph Hug (Zurich, Switzerland) gave lectures to the students of the Law Institute. Cooperation with Prof. Yanom Widacki still needs to finish. Thus, an important event in international cooperation was his visit on September 23, 2021, by Yana Widacki to the Educational and Scientific Legal Institute, members of the department of Prof. P.L. Fries, Assoc. I.V. Kozych and Assoc. Yu.I. Mykytyn.