Today criminal law does not only include national law--in the struggle against international and transnational crime criminal law has become a supranational legal mechanism for crime prevention and human rights. These are the conclusions of research carried out by Dr. Merab Turava, Professor of Law, with support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In order to conduct research in international and European criminal law, he visited the Scientific Research Institutes of the Faculties of Law at the University of Humboldt in Berlin, the Albertus Magnus University of Cologne and the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena.

This research resulted in a publication in transnational criminal law, important because it is the first book in the field in Georgian, aimed at Law students and PhD students in interdisciplinary studies of international and European criminal law. The publication reviews modern transnational criminal law and the convergence of legal institutions of-- first and foremost-- Anglo-American and Continental-European systems. The practice of international criminal courts was established during the process of the application of international justice, through cooperation and mutual understanding of judges from various judiciaries. This has provided the opportunity for reaching a compromise between various systems. It illustrates the internationalization of criminal law. The results of a harmonious convergence of legal systems should be taken into consideration with respect to the Georgian national legal system as well, in order to obtain a reasonable balance between extremely different approaches.

On one hand, Georgia has been under the jurisdiction of the international criminal court since 2003 and on the other it joined the Council of Europe in April 1999. Legal relations with the European Union are deepening which has caused a number of amendments to be made to Georgian criminal legislation. These factors largely determine the growth of transnational and supranational effects on the development of Georgian criminal law and its harmonization.

The publication resulting from this research consists of two parts:

The first volume of the publication is dedicated to the issues of international supranational criminal law related to implementation of international criminal justice carried out by temporary criminal tribunals and permanent courts. The essence of international supranational criminal law is to bring criminal charges against individuals for specific macro-criminal offences. Punishment for those acts stems from the Nuremberg classical list of offences. The work describes important stages in the history of international criminal law, analyzes the contents of separate international crimes and discusses the legal issues of international criminal proceedings and cooperation with international criminal courts.

The second volume analyses key aspects of European criminal law in order to highlight main trends of its development and clarify its influence on Georgian criminal law. European criminal law is developing in two directions – in the framework of the Council of Europe and of the European Union. An important factor of its development is the harmonization of elements of transnational crimes in the field of substantive criminal law, and the bilateral recognition of decisions in the field of criminal procedure law.

As a result of developments since the 1990s the entire discipline of transnational criminal law is undergoing a renaissance, while it simultaneously remains in the Golden Age of its development. The harmonious convergence of two major legal systems of the world is in place. The author concludes that presently transnational criminal law is not simply a theoretical university discipline, but an effective factor contributing to deepening mutual cooperation between states. Since the 1990s, criminal law has turned into an effective super-state mechanism to punish international criminals, based on the creation of temporary tribunals, then on permanent courts. It has promoted the institutionalization of international criminal justice that will largely end the lacunae in bringing criminals to justice and sentencing for the gravest violations of human rights worldwide. The transnational cooperation of states has deepened through European criminal law, and the significance of European standards for national legal systems has increased.

In May and June 2014, the Council of the Faculty of Law and the Representative Council of TSU – decided to set up an Institute of Comparative and Transnational Criminal Law at the Faculty of Law. This Institute will help intensify work on research conducted by Professor Turava, which is still underway. On October 28, 2014 the author delivered a report on his work at the international conference “Human Rights and Transitional Justice in Georgia” where the Director of the Max Planck Institute (Freiburg),Ulrich Sieber, also participated. A scientific article was published in the collection Human Rights and Implementation of Legal Reforms in Georgia (Professor Konstantine Korkelia, Editor ).