Chair of Criminal Law

The YSU Chair of Criminal Law was founded in 1937. From 1938-1984 the Chair was headed by Dr., Professor A. T. Tovmasyan, and from 1991-2000 by the academician of RA NAS, Dr., Professor G. S. Ghazinyan. In 2000, Doctor of Legal Sciences, Professor A. Gabuzyan was elected as the head of the Chair.

The Chair of Criminal Law is the leading institution in RA that conducts basic research in the field of criminal, penal law, and criminology, which has a significant contribution to the development of criminal and penal policy, as well as legislation.

During the last decades, significant works have been carried out in the Chair both in the direction of improving the educational process and increasing the level and efficiency of scientific research works. The Chair has always started publishing textbooks and educational manuals in Armenian, in particular, the university textbooks "Criminal Law of the Republic of Armenia (General Part)" and "Criminal Law of the Republic of Armenia (Special Part)", "Criminal Law of the Republic of Armenia (General Part) Reference Book", "Methodology of Criminological Research", "Criminological Theories", "Legal Statistics", "Criminal Law" training manuals, as well as lecture texts of many other courses taught at the Chair were prepared and published. Active work is carried out in the Chair in the direction of researching current problems of criminal and penitentiary rights, criminology, and other areas. The main directions of the scientific research activity of the Chair are trends in the development of criminality in the transitional period, the characteristics of criminality and deviant behavior of minors and youth, the problems of motivation of criminal behavior, imprisonment and alternative punishments, sentencing, corruption crimes, and victimization.

H. M. Khachikyan's "Criminological and Penitentiary Problems of Imprisonment", A.H. Gabuzyan's "Problems of Crime in the Transition Period in Armenia", S.V. Arakelyan's "Criminal Violence", T.V. Simonyan's "Criminality of Youth in Armenia", A.R. Margaryan's "Problems of Juvenile Delinquency and Deviant Behavior in Armenia" as well as Zh. A. Stepanyan's monographs "Problems of sentencing in case of recidivism of crimes" were published by the Chair. In cooperation with the Chair of Criminal Procedure and Criminology, based on the results of the research of the scientific topic in 2020. The monograph "Problems of Juvenile Delinquency Prevention in RA" was published. The Chair has always been involved in the ongoing judicial reforms in the Republic of Armenia. Thus: After the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia (1995) until now, the staff of the Chair actively participated in the development of various codes and drafts of laws, in particular, the "Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia", "Penal Enforcement Code of the Republic of Armenia" and a number of other legislative acts. In addition, the Chair developed the concepts of the new RA criminal and penitentiary codes and, based on them, prepared the drafts of the new RA criminal and penitentiary codes, which were adopted by the RA National Assembly on May 5, 2021, and on June 15, 2022, respectively. Work is being carried out in the Chair in the direction of preparation of textbooks of RA criminal law (general and special parts) and penal enforcement law.

Lawyers-scientists recognized in RA and foreign countries, and specialists holding high positions in RA law enforcement and judicial system teach at the Chair.

The Chair implements the "Criminal Justice and Advocacy" Master's degree educational program.