Shahen Nikolay Petrosyan (17 February 1912 – March 14, 1999) was a lawyer, doctor of law, professor, honored lawyer of the Armenian SSR, Chairman of the Supreme Court of Armenia, Dean of the Faculty of Law of Yerevan State University, Head of Department of the History of the State and Law.

Biography

Shahen Petrosyan was born on February 17, 1912, in the village of Ddmashen, in the Sevan region.

Ddmashen Ddmashen ( hy, Դդմաշեն) is a village in the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification ...

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

is one of the oldest villages in Armenia, as evidenced by the presences of the 7th century

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

of St. Tadevos (the link from the wiki). Upon graduation from high school, Petrosyan continued his studies in Yerevan and in 1933entered the

Yerevan State University Yerevan State University (YSU; hy, Երևանի Պետական Համալսարան, ԵՊՀ, ''Yerevani Petakan Hamalsaran''), also simply University of Yerevan, is the oldest continuously operating public university in Armenia. Founded in 1919 ...

Department of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

, graduating in 1937. Combining studies he worked as the director of the Boarding School N13 after Ernest Thelman, from 1934 to 1936. Upon graduation Petrosyan started his career as a lawyer and worked first as a prosecutor in the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic and later as a deputy chief of civil affairs and the

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

of Molotovo district of Yerevan from 1940 to 1943. At the age of 38, he was elected as chairman of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

. Petrosyan earned the degree of

Candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * t ...

Legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

Sciences Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

in 1949, in Moscow, and moved on to teaching, serving as a lecturer,

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

, head of department and dean. In 1972 he received his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

followed by his designation as full professor in 1974. Petrosyan served as the dean of the

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

from 1974 to 1978 and headed the Department of the History of the Theory of state and law from 1977 to 1985. As a professor, he taught at the Faculty of "History of State and Law of foreign countries" and "Public Law of the socialist countries." He was an active participant in the drafting of

legislative A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known as p ...

acts of the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and for 25 years continuously led the work of the Scientific and Methodological Council of State and Law Society, "Knowledge" of the Armenian SSR. Additionally he served as chairman of the Faculty Academic Council academic degree of Scientific and Methodological Council of Higher and Secondary Education. In 1982 he was awarded the title of Honored Lawyer of the Armenian SSR and received a medal from the Supreme Council of the

Armenian SSR The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...

. On December 14, 2012, a scientific conference of the faculty of

was conducted dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Shahen N. Petrosyan. In 2013 proceedings of the conference were published in the "Publisher of YSU."

Published works

# "Constitutional Development of the Soviet State in Armenia", 1958. # "The Constitution of the Armenian SSR and its Historical Development", 1982. # "The Public Authorities of the Developed Socialism", 1982. # "The History and Law of Foreign Countries", 1986. # "Memoriam" 1994.

References

1912 births 1999 deaths Armenian lawyers Yerevan State University alumni Soviet lawyers {{jurist-stub