April 12th, 2019, MRU Law PhD student Ramunė Jakštienė successfully defend her dissertation, "Domestic Violence Against Women: Protection by Criminal Law."

The PhD dissertation deals with the fact that the rate of the most frequent form of violence against women - domestic violence is not decreasing. It is gender-based violence, which affects women disproportionately.

Despite national and international efforts, the scope and intensity of domestic violence in Lithuania remains huge. Response to domestic violence and arrangement of protection of victims are insufficiently efficient.

Response to domestic violence and arrangement of the protection of victims are insufficient. Special legal acts regulating protection against domestic violence in Lithuania are relatively recent, however, practice of their application has already disclosed their dysfunctions, inconsistency with the CC and the CCP.

The national legal acts concerning domestic violence and practice of their application, lack doctrinal methodological basis. This results in inefficiency of protection against violence, failure to fulfil international obligations. The above mentioned aspects indicate a real demand to deal the problem and ensure efficient implementation of positive obligations of the State to protect persons against domestic violence.

Since the most serious forms of such violence have been criminalised, the implementation of this obligation is first related to an appropriate application of the measures of criminal law and criminal procedure law. Aiming to criminalize domestic violence and to establish proportionate measures of criminal liability, it is necessary to analyse the specifics of violence, perpetrators and victims and then to assess whether the existing system of criminalization is sufficient or is a special provision establishing criminal liability necessary.

Aiming to establish adequate procedural guarantees of the protection of domestic violence victims, it is necessary to determine an optimal form of criminal procedure in cases of domestic violence, and also adequate measures for detection of violence and evidencing.