On April 19, 2024, the National Conference of the Lithuanian Criminologists’ Association “Contemporary Connections in Criminology: Science, Practice, Everyday Life” took place. The annual event was attended by scientists and practitioners from various fields, who aimed to reveal the role of technology in criminology and discuss about the perspectives and threats of technology in law enforcement.

At the conference, scientists from the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences also presented their reports. Dr. Rūta Vaičiūnienė in her presentation “Transformations and Reformations of the Professional Role of Prison Officers” introduced and compared the prison models of Western and post-Soviet countries, highlighting the differences in the roles of prison officers.

Additionally, the researcher presented the latest data from the focus group discussion of the project “Changes in prison officers’ professional roles within the shifting custodial sentencing policy and practice” (PRISTA), funded by the Research Council of Lithuania. The findings revealed the daily life of prison officers: collaboration among colleagues, the implementation of resocialization goals, relationships between officers, and internal professional roles’ conflicts of prison staff.

After presentation, discussions with conference participants revolved around the assumptions of the final research results.

On April 12, 2024, the fourth international scientific-practical conference “Trends and Challenges in European and National Criminal Policy” organised by the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences (LCSS LI), the Faculty of Law of Vytautas Magnus University, and the Law School of Mykolas Romeris University was held. At the event, along with Lithuanian and foreign researchers and practitioners, Dr. Mindaugas Lankauskas and Dr. Skirmantas Bikelis from LCSS LI also participated.

Mindaugas Lankauskas presented a topic “How Does Themis Weigh Drugs? Legal Framework for the Determination of Drug Quantities in Lithuania”. During his presentation, the researcher introduced criteria for determining the quantity of psychoactive substances and its impact on criminal liability.

“Why do the quantities of hashish and cannabis differ by up to 20 times according to our legislation?” - rhetorically asked Dr. Lankauskas, identifying problematic aspects of drug quantity determination. Finally, the researcher also presented his proposals on what should be done to ensure that the law regarding quantity does not abandon the principle of proportionality.

This topic was thoroughly examined in a recent article by Dr. Lankauskas titled “How does Themis Weigh Drugs? Peculiarities of the Legal Regulation of the Determination of Quantities of Some Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances in Lithuania” published in the scientific criminology journal “Criminological studies”, which is published by LCSS Law Institute in collaboration with the Lithuanian Criminologists’ Association and Vilnius University.

Skirmantas Bikelis presented a paper in English titled “Prohibition to Hold Public Office and Prohibition to Be Elected - Lithuanian v. German Approaches. Legal language and proportionality issue”. In his presentation, the researcher compared the regulation of Lithuania and Germany regarding an additional sanction - the prohibition to hold public office. At the end of his presentation, he identified linguistic aspects that could become reasons for failure when seeking to impose this additional punitive measure on the convicted individual.

The internationally renowned Cambride University Press has published a collective book, coordinated by the Institute's researchers, which examines various aspects of the use of facial recognition technologies: The Cambridge Handbook of Facial Recognition in Modern State (eds. Monika Žalnieriūtė and Rita Matulionytė).

The book covers the legal, social and ethical aspects of facial recognition technologies in five regions of the world - Europe, North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Africa.

Facial recognition technologies are widely used in institutions ranging from border control and police to social services. Automated facial recognition technologies are used by governments in various countries to collect taxes, prevent crime and control migration processes. Facial recognition technologies involve the processing of a person's facial image,usually for identification, categorisation, or counting. This book brings together contributions from experts in law, technology, communications, and social and political sciences to discuss how facial recognition technologies have been developed and used by local authorities, and how they are regulated in different jurisdictions across five continents.

The book consists of 19 chapters written by 34 contributors from around the world, including Institute of Law researchers Rita Matulionytė, Agnė Limantė, Egle Kavoliūnaitė-Ragauskienė and Monika Žalnieriūtė.

This book is the result of the project „Government Use of Facial Recognition Technologies: Legal Challenges and Solutions (Face-AI)“. The project was funded by the Lithuanian Research Council (Contract No. S-MIP-21-38). 

The book is available here.

LCSS Institute of Law is changing its address and moving to new premises. From now on you can find us at A. Goštauto str. 12, Vilnius!

Dr Agnė Limantė, Chief Researcher at the Legal System Research Department of the Law Institute of the LCSS, became a member of the International Advisory Board of the scientific journal Collected Papers of the Faculty of Law of the University of Rijeka. Congratulations to our colleague!

More information about the journal and its editorial team.

„The international Journal of Human Rights“ has published an article by Dr. Agne Limante, a researcher at the Institute, called „Protecting vulnerable groups in Europe: highlights from recent case law of the European Court of Human Rights“.

The article focuses on recent cases of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) where the Court has granted legal protection to vulnerable groups. It examines the paradigm of vulnerability in the context of the ECtHR cases and the case law in order to identify recent trends and developments in the Court's decisions.

Agnė Limantė's publication can be found here.

On 22nd of November 2023, the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Law on Equal Opportunities was marked with a celebration. During the event for the celebration, a LCSS Institute of Law researcher, Artūras Tereškinas was presented with a letter of appreciation for his important and historically significant contribution to establishment of equal opportunities in Lithuanian society.

We are happy and proud of our colleague and his significant work!

Artūras Tereškinas' work can be found here.

Photo from the Office of the Seimas.

A project submitted by the LCSS Institute of Law and Dr. Gabrielė Taminskaitė- Kočiūnė has won funding in the Research Council of Lithuania postdoctoral internship competition. Dr. Gabrielė Taminskaitė-Kočiūnė, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ingrida Mačernytė-Panomariovienė, will implement the research project „Work-life balance: legal measures and theri implementation“. The aim of the research is to analyse and reveal the legal instruments for ensuring work-life balance in Lithuania, their objectives, application and functioning in practice, in the context of international and European Union and national constitutional law, as well as in comparison with individual foreign examples.

Congratulations to the project leader and the trainee!

Associative unsplash photo (Andrew Neel).