Culture has a significant impact on the personality and on the development of an individual’s perceptions. How does culture impact modern science? Do specific features of traditional culture affect the lives of individuals in today’s society? TSU Professor Lali Surmanidze answers some of these questions from her research from the last 20 years in the interdisciplinary fields of psychology and anthropology.

The recognition of the right to life and its restriction is one of the most controversial issues in the modern world. International laws on human rights recognize the right to life, but in most cases it is unclear from which particular moment that right is protected, and ranges anywhere from the moment of impregnation to the moment of birth. The European Commission on Human Rights has refrained from defining the moment of the right to life in the context of abortion. There are only a few laws which clearly recognize the moment of impregnation as the beginning of the right to life. The issue of children’s rights before birth is found in the Convention on the Rights of the Child which was signed by Georgia in 1994. It clearly and explicitly recognizes a child’s right to legal protection before the birth. Based on this norm and with due consideration to the principles of the Convention, many countries have developed legislation which secures a child’s right to life under certain conditions.

In December 2012, at the initiative of the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia, the LEPL Penitentiary and Probation Training Centre (PPTC) and the Faculty of Law of Tbilisi State University, a non-profit legal entity called the Prison Study Centre was established. It unites scientists and practitioners working in the fields of penitentiaries and probation.

In January 2012 a new scientific research union, the Davit Batonishvili Institute of Law, was established at the initiative of TSU students, PhDs and Professors, united in the Georgian Society of Young Scientists. Presently the Davit Batonishvili Institute of Law is the most important young researchers union in the South Caucasus with the objective of implementing educational and scientific projects in the field of law.