Chair of Criminal Procedure and Criminology

The Chair of Criminal Procedure and Criminology was founded in 1972, based on the Chair of Criminal Law. Until 1982, the Chair was led by its founder, Associate Professor, later Professor H. M. Pivazyan, and from 1983 until 2006, by Professor L. P. Ohanyan, while in 2006, by Doctor of Legal science, Professor S. A. Dilbandyan.

From the first years of its establishment, the Chair has been engaged in the creation of textbooks and training manuals in the mother tongue. Professor H. Pivazyan authored the first textbook "Criminal Procedure" in his native language (1989). Chair professor L. Ohanyan, embarking on the creation of a complete textbook on the subject "Criminalistics", published the chapter "Criminalistics (techniques)" in 1993, and in 2004, published the textbook "Criminalistics".

After the adoption of the RA Constitution (1995), the Chair actively participates in the judicial reforms implemented in the Republic. The Chair's staff participated in the drafting of various laws and codes, in particular the RA Criminal Procedure Code, the RA Judicial Code, the RA Law on Prosecution, and many other legislative acts. Many draft legislative acts were discussed in the Chair, then were returned to the relevant bodies with corrections, comments, and suggestions. In 2007, the Chair developed the concept of the new RA Criminal Procedure Code, based on which the draft of the RA Criminal Procedure Code was prepared, which was adopted by the National Assembly on June 30, 2021, and was implemented on June 1, 2022.

The Chair continues the publication of textbooks and training manuals in the mother tongue on the subjects taught. In 1998 the following textbooks and training manuals have been published based on the current legislation: "Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Armenia" (general and special parts), "Justice System of the Republic of Armenia", "Prosecution Office of the Republic of Armenia", "Criminal Studies", "Methodology of Crime Investigation", "Methodology of Criminalistics", "Legal Notation". In 2018, V. Yengibaryan published the scientific and practical manual "Tactics of conducting individual investigative actions". In 2019, The Chair published "The Justice System of the Republic of Armenia" and "Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Armenia. Special part" textbooks.

The main directions of research activities of the Chair.

Scientific research works are carried out in the Chair in the direction of criminal procedure law, criminology, and other fields. The Chair's professionals are the authors of more than a dozen monographs dedicated to the general problems of criminal proceedings, ensuring the protection of the rights of victims of crime, the implementation of the right to defense, the judiciary, the protection of human rights, the application of European standards for the protection of human rights in criminal proceedings, pre-trial proceedings and issues of criminology. In particular, the fundamental monograph "Historical and Contemporary Issues of Criminal Procedure in Armenia" by Chair Professor G. Ghazinyan (2001), the monograph "Issues of Ensuring the Protection of personal rights and legal interests in the pre-trial proceedings of Criminal Proceedings" by Chair Professor S. Dilbandyan (2011), "The Collection of scientific articles devoted to the Issues of the RA Criminal Procedure Code" under the co-authorship of professors of the Chair (2014), the monograph "Criminal-procedural and criminological foundations of the organization of the investigation of crimes" by Professor V. Yengibaryan (2016), the monographs "Cassation as a Form of Review of judicial acts in RA criminal proceedings" by Associate Professor of the Chair T. Sujyan (2017), "Issues of review of final court decisions in the RA Criminal proceedings" by A. Hovhannisyan (2018), "Development of legal and theoretical foundations of juvenile proceedings in the pre-trial proceedings of RA criminal procedures" by Chair Assistant N. Aghababyan (2020). According to the results of the research on the scientific topic jointly with the Chair of Criminal Law, the monograph "Problems of juvenile delinquency prevention in RA" was published (2020). In the 2020-21 academic year, the department revised and organized a new Master's education program, "Criminal Justice and Advocacy", which is implemented with new, updated subject programs, as well as new subject teaching, which provides practical and up-to-date knowledge, especially in the field of advocacy.