Department of Criminal Law

Research areas

The Department of Criminal Law conducts research in the field of substantive criminal law, procedural criminal law, petty offences, European Union criminal law, international criminal law, juvenile criminal law, medical law, economic criminal law, so-called repressive law, comparative law, and criminal policy.

---

Research projects

Current projects

• “Criteria for assessing the internal consistency of the criminal procedure model: Comparative analysis”. Manager and researcher: Hanna Kuczyńska, PhD, Professor INP PAN. The project was funded by the National Science Centre, Opus 11, carried out from 2017 to 2020.
• “Reform of misdemeanour law”. Project Manager: Paweł Daniluk, PhD, Professor INP PAN; researcher: Paweł Daniluk, PhD, Professor INP PAN, Jolanta Jakubowska-Hara, PhD, Professor INP PAN. The project was funded by the National Science Centre, Opus 12, implemented between 2017 and 2020.
• “Compliance as a tool for corruption prevention””. Project Manager: Celina Nowak, PhD Prof. INP PAN. The project was funded by the National Science Centre, Opus 11, and implemented between 2017 and 2020.
• “Controlling Illicit Trade of Tobacco in the Era of Fast Change”. Leader: Celina Nowak, PhD, Professor INP PAN. International project funded by PMI Impact, implemented from 2017 to 2020.
• “Standards for confiscation of proceeds of crime set out in European Union law and their impact on Polish, German, French and English criminal law”. Manager and researcher: Ariadna H. Ochnio, PhD. Project funded by the National Science Centre, Opus 17, carried out between 2020 and 2023.

Projects carried out between 2007 and 2017

1. Projects funded by the National Science Centre or Ministry of Science and Higher Education:
   • “Alternatives of incarceration in the Polish criminal justice system”. Supervisor: Jolanta Jakubowska-Hara, PhD, Professor at the INP PAN; Researchers: Anna Błachnio-Parzych, PhD, Jolanta Jakubowska-Hara, PhD, Professor at the INP PAN, Jacek Kosonoga, PhD, Professor at the INP PAN, Hanna Kuczyńska, PhD, Professor at the INP PAN, Barbara Kunicka-Michalska, PhD, Prof., Celina Nowak, PhD, Professor at the INP PAN, and Jan Skupiński, PhD. The project was carried out from 2007 to 2010. Publications: Alternatives of incarceration in Polish penal policy, by the project participants (ed. J.Jakubowska-Hara, J. Skupiński), published by Scholar in 2009; Problems of current penal policy in view of the overpopulation of penal institutions (eds. J. Jakubowska-Hara, C. Nowak), Published by Scholar 2010.
   • Implementation of European Law in the Criminal Law of Spain. Supervisor and researcher: Barbara Kunicka-Michalska, PhD, Prof. Project realised in the years 2009–2010. Publication: An outline of criminal law of Spain, published by Wydawnictwo Scholar in 2009.
   • “Modern trends in criminalisation and Polish criminal law”. Supervisor and researcher: Celina Nowak, PhD, Prof. INP PAN. The project was implemented between 2010 and 2012. Publication The impact of globalization processes on Polish criminal law, Wolters Kluwer 2014.
   • “The Model of Prosecution before the International Criminal Court: A study of convergence between legal systems”. Manager and researcher: Hanna Kuczyńska, PhD, Prof. INP PAN. The project was carried out from 2013 to 2015. Publication The Model of Prosecution before the International Criminal Court, C. H. Beck 2014.
   • “The confluence of repressive responsibility: Models for solving the problem of cumulation of punishments in the system of repressive responsibility”. Manager and researcher: Anna Błachnio-Parzych, PhD. The project was carried out from 2014 to 2017. Publication Confluence of criminal and administrative-penal liability as a confluence of repressive liability regimes, Wolters Kluwer 2016.
   • “Principles of confiscation of proceeds of crime in French, German and English criminal law”. Manager and researcher: Ariadna H. Ochnio, PhD. The project was funded by the National Science Centre (no. 2018/02/X/HS5/01663), and carried out from 2018 to 2019. Publication The problematic scope of extended confiscation in comparative perspective, New Codification of Criminal Law 2019, vol. LII (52).
2. Other research projects:
   • “Standards of a fair criminal trial in Polish and international case law”. Leader: Paweł Wiliński, PhD. Researchers: Anna Błachnio- Parzych, PhD, Jacek Kosonoga, PhD, Hanna Kuczyńska, PhD, Prof. INP PAN, Celina Nowak, PhD, Prof. INP PAN, and Paweł Wiliński, PhD, Prof. Collective publication A fair criminal trial in the case law of Polish and international courts (ed. P. Wiliński), Wolters Kluwer 2009.
   • “Cooperation with the International Criminal Court”. Researcher: Hanna Kuczyńska, PhD, Professor INP PAN. The project was implemented from 2013 to 2014, as part of a special grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for financing the academic development of young scientists and PhD students.
   • “New ways of dispossession of criminal assets in European Union law and Polish criminal law”. Researcher: Ariadna H. Ochnio, PhD. The project was implemented between 2014 and 2015, under the special grant of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for financing the academic development of young scientists and doctoral students. The main publication: Implementation of the New EU Directive on Confiscation in Poland: the Challenge of Overcoming the Negative Historical Experiences of Confiscation Orders, European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Volume 24, Issue 1, BRILL.
   • “Trends of changes in the development of criminal responsibility of minors in international law versus Polish law”. Researcher: Joanna Mierzwińska-Lorencka, PhD. The project was carried out in 2016 under the special grant of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for financing the academic development of young scientists and doctoral students.
3. Other studies and academic initiatives:
   • The Department of Criminal Law conducted research on the reform of criminal law, which resulted in the publication of a comprehensive collective work entitled Reform of criminal law: Proposals and comments (eds. J. Jakubowska-Hara, C. Nowak, J. Skupiński), published by Scholar 2008. The book contains works written by all the then employees of the Department and many other authors, and was dedicated to Professor Barbara Kunicka-Michalska.
   • The Department’s research on the broadly defined system of criminal justice resulted in a collective publication dedicated to Professor Jan Skupiński, the long-standing Head of the Department of Criminal Law. The Jubilee Book entitled Problems of Criminal Justice (eds. A. Błachnio-Parzych, J. Jakubowska-Hara, J. Kosonoga, H. Kuczyńska) included 90 authors. It was published by Wolters Kluwer in 2013.
   • In 2016, C. H. Beck published the most comprehensive, to date, commentary to the Code of Misdemeanours, edited by Paweł Daniluk, PhD, Professor INP PAN, whose authors include Paweł Daniluk, PhD, and Jolanta Jakubowska, PhD, Professor INP PAN.
   • On the initiative of Anna Błachnio-Parzych, PhD, the Department of Criminal Law, in cooperation with the Institute of Criminal Law of the University of Warsaw, organised a series of seminars lasting two academic years, from 2016 to 2018. Open Seminars in the Philosophy of Criminal Law were held under the supervision of Prof. R. A. Duff from the University of Stirling, Scotland.
   • In 2017, Joanna Mierzwińska-Lorencka, PhD participated in the research project Study EuPenTrain – “Preparing the environment for the EPPO: Fostering mutual trust by improving existing common legal heritage and enhancing common legal understanding: Proposal for a preliminary study and guidelines for a model `framework curriculum` for legal training of practitioners in the PIF sector”.
   • Since 2014, Anna Błachnio-Parzych, PhD, has been an expert in the Quasi-Criminal Enforcement Mechanisms research network. The Network is coordinated by Prof. Ch. Harding (Aberystwyth University, UK) and Prof. V. Frassen (University of Liege, Belgium). The members of the Network carried out the project entitled “Interference between criminal and administrative law In EU law” which resulted in the publication EU Criminal Law and Policy: Values, Principles and Methods (ed. J.B. Banach-Gutierres, Ch. Harding), New York 2016.
   • Celina Nowak, Prof. INP PAN is participating in an international research project “Implementing & Enforcing EU Criminal Law – Theory & Practice”, at the University of Malta (L’Universita ta’ Malta).
   • H. Kuczyńska, PhD, Prof. INP PAN took part in an international research project “The European Public Prosecutor’s Office: Strategies For Coping With Complexity Financial Accountability in the EU (EUFINACCO). Interdisciplinary academic research network focused on the EU budget and beyond / Recognised as an UACES Collaborative Research Network (CRN) for 2015-2018” (completed in December 2019).