The First Project Coordination Meeting and International CRIMHUM Conference in Lviv

The First CRIMHUM Coordination Meeting was organised back to back with the First International CRIMHUM Conference on February 20-21, 2020 in the glorious city of Lviv. Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko was the host university.
The project coordinators from the University of Graz (Grantholder / Austria), the Faculty of Law of the University of Rijeka (Croatia), Vilnius University (Lithuania), Belarusian State University (Minsk, Belarus), Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno (Belarus), Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko (Ukraine), Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Kharkiv, Ukraine), National University “Odesa Law Academy” (Ukraine) attended the meeting.

The participants discussed the following issues:

Implementation of the program in Belarus and Ukraine: milestones, difficulties and their overcoming (Dr. Aleh Maroz and Vasyl Lutsyk)
The procedure of the Project registration in Ukraine (Dr. Vasyl Lutsyk)
Information on Project reporting (Dr. Aleh Maroz)
Purchase of Equipment: problems and solutions (discussion)
Current issues of financial management (Prof. Thomas Kruessmann and Dr. Vadzim Samaryn)
Repeat: refund of staff costs, travel cost, equipment, printing and publishing, other costs and the necessity of co-financing by each partner (discussion)
Progress planning of the next period (discussion)
Content of textbooks and progress in their writing (discussion)
Development of ‘to-do’ for each partner (discussion)
The aim of the conference was to pay attention to the Erasmus+ CRIMHUM project and its interim results, as well as to discuss issues of modern legal education in the field of criminal justice.

The first day of the conference was opened with a welcoming speech by the Dean of the Law Faculty of the Lviv National University named after Ivan Franko Prof. Volodymyr Burdin. He noted the importance of the CRIMHUM project for Ukrainian legal education. A welcoming speech was also made by Professor Dr. Vasyl Nor, Head of the Department of Criminal Procedure and Criminalistics.

Each report made a heated discussion. Of particular note, the report of the Prof. Viacheslav Navrotski "How to teach criminal law, but not legislation?". It raised the problem of the need to learn the law, rather than constantly changing legislation, so that students can understand the very essence of the rule of law. Prof. Vasyl Nor described the reforms in the institute of settlement in criminal proceedings in Ukraine. Dr. Igor Martinović and Iva Parenta raised the problem of upholding human rights while using firearms: European standards and challenges to young professionals in Central and Eastern Europe. Dr. Olga Petrova explained the need for training in the interrogation of minors in criminal proceedings. Dr. Olena Kharytonova devoted her report to gender equality issues in the legal profession. Prof. Tuliakov revealed sustainable development goals, human rights and criminal jurisprudence. Dr. Vadzim Samaryn revealed the issues of human rights violations during the use of the Interpol mechanism and told what a modern law student in this field needs to know. Dr. Larisa Brinch informed participants about the ECHR practice on the verification of the means of proof in criminal proceedings (Khmelnytsky university of management and law)

The first day of the Conference was followed by a Round-table discussion «Current issues of reforming criminal justice in EU, Ukraine and Belarus» with the participation of Ukrainian stakeholders, which was consisting of two sessions. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Olena Kharytonova.

As a result of the conference, it was noted that it is necessary to overcome the difficulty of teaching students relevant judicial practice (especially the practice of the ECHR) in the light of changing legal positions.