Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian cooperation a factor inspiring integration processes in the criminalistics of the three seas region (Intermarium)

Abstract

According to our scientific doctrine, in the first half of the 20th century, four basic schools of forensic science were formed, based on the national systems (models) of forensic science of several European countries. For several decades, scientific forums have been discussing the need to bring the paradigms of national forensic science systems (models) in Europe closer together. This is a topic we have raised more than once, including at the “Forensics and Forensic Expertise: Science, Study, Practice” conferences we organize. Without going into the historical circumstances of the formation of forensic science in the modern territories of Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine, we must emphasize that they differed significantly and undoubtedly had and have an impact on the modem models of forensic science. The primary purpose of the article is to present the views of Lithuanian scientists on the issues of mutual Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of forensic science in the broad sense after 1990, including in the Trilateral area, and to appeal to colleagues from Central Europe for its deepening, consolidation in both scientific and didactic and practical fields. In the article, we would like to emphasize the place and importance o f these processes in academic institutions and non-governmental forensic organizations. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has put a big question mark on the project to create a common European forensic space. Today, a more realistic approach is to build a regional forensic network, based on the potential o f the countries o f the Trilateral Initiative, incorporating countries such as Ukraine and Moldova first1, and then possibly other countries in the region. We are convinced that the seeds o f a new school o f forensic science are being formed in Europe between the Eastern European and Germanic schools, which we can tentatively call the Three Seas Initiative (Intermarium) school, and that the “power plays and interests” in European geopolitics will be a stimulus to strengthen the broader forensic cooperation o f the countries in the region.