NLAO structure

Department of Criminal Law

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The history of the Department of Criminal Law dates back to the foundation and existence of the Richelieu Lyceum (1817-1865). At that time the Department of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure was established.

Head of the Department, Doctor of Law,  Professor Vyacheslav A. TULYAKOV

The Department of Criminal Law and Judicial System became the successor of the former Department, when the Lyceum was reorganized into Novorossiysky University. The scientists that specialized in the studying and teaching of criminal law and criminal process were joined to work together at that department. The teachers of judicial medicine (it was considered that this subject was one of criminal law subjects) also belonged to that department.

The department teaching staff was small in number at that time, but the most interesting and well-educated persons, highly skilled specialists in the sphere of practice and theory of criminal law and judicial medicine, represented it.

The personality of ordinary Professor Alexander Nickolaevich Bogdanovsky, who for a long time had been giving to the University students the lectures on the foundations of criminal law and its different branches is of special interest. He began his activity in criminal law and practice juridical procedure in Risheleu Lyceum. After the defence of his thesis for a Master’s degree in Moscow University in 1857 he became a professor and then – a director of Lyceum. In addition, he was one of the first professors at the University. A.N. Bogdanovsky was a talented lawyer, he had a gift to carry out a subtle analysis, but, unfortunately, only a few of his publications have come to our days. It is known that he published his thesis prepared for getting Master’s and Doctor’s degrees. The last work was the valuable contribution into the theory of criminal law sociology and one of the first works that was dedicated to the analysis of juvenile criminal behaviour in Russia and France.

The teacher of judicial system and procedure Vladimir Nickolaevich Palayzov is another interesting figure at the department of criminal law at the University.

The name of the graduating student of 1886 from Novorossiysky University – Piontkovsky A.A. – is well known too. After graduating the Novorossiysky University he was invited to teach and become a teacher of criminal law. Later he had been teaching this course for many years. The punishment in form of deprivation of freedom, the problems of criminal rehabilitation, who have been discharged on probation or completely, the nature, history and progress of this discharge in the countries of Europe and America are the most interesting themes of Piontkovskiy scientific works.

The department of criminal law of Novorossiysky University juridical faculty had been working successfully up to 1917. At this chair thousands of lawyers, who became good practical workers in the sphere of criminal justice, had graduated from the Novorossiysky University.

The chair of criminal law was dissolved because of reorganization of high education structure at the end of 10th- at the beginning of 20th years in the XX century.

The rebirth of the criminal law department traditions was connected with the creation of juridical department in the structure of Odessa State University named after I.I. Mechnikov in 1947.

The criminal-legal furcation is one of the forms of providing juridical specialization. The so-called of furcations were opened in 1947. The chair of special juridical disciplines was science and teaching kernel of students’ training in criminal-legal specialization. At that time there were many veterans of the Great Patriotic War among teachers and students. The senior lecturer M.A. Kravtsov was the first head of the chair after the reestablishment of the juridical department. Among teachers of criminal profile disciplines there were the Court’s officials, the office of Republic Prosecutor, the Ministry of Inner Affairs  and the Bar, which combined their practice activity with teaching work. The head of Institute of Juridical Expertise, candidate of Law T.Ph. Sharkova took an active part in teaching activities of the chair. Later a young prospective scientist, Candidate of Law A.K. Schedrina also joined the chair.

In 1950 the students’ scientific society, which held a lot of scientific and practical conferences, began its work at the chair. In this sphere the society closely cooperated with Charkov Juridical Institute (now the National Academy of Law named after Yaroslav the Wise), Juridical department of Kiev State (now – National University named after T.Shevchenko).

The practical training of students was organized by the chair in different law- enforcement bodies in accordance with specializations, which were elected by students. After finishing the III-IV year some of students were appointed investigators, prosecutor’s deputies, and expert-criminalists.

In the post-war years the criminal law of close and far abroad countries was taught in the chair. The special courses had a pure scientific and practical character and were taught in the score of about 50 and more academic hours. Besides of basic academic disciplines – criminal law, criminal-procedure, reformatory system and criminalistics – the chair broadly used the materials of criminal practice, introducing special courses in the sphere of criminology, criminal-procedure and criminalistics.

1960 marked a new birth of Juridical department and the beginning of a new stage in the history of studying the criminal law cycle disciplines. At that time the chair of special juridical disciplines taught these disciplines. The teachers, who were working at this chair, - N.O. Bondarenko, who successfully defended her Candidate dissertation, the Candidate of Juridical science senior lecturer K.I. Udaluch, who later became deputy-head of the chair and the dean of Juridical department, the Candidate of Juridical science senior lecturer I.V. Michailov, who was working as the head of Odessa branch of All-Union Juridical Extra-mural Institute (ANJEI).

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