The Department of Criminal Law was founded together with seven other departments by the Rector of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University upon the establishment of the Faculty of Law in 1973. In charge of the Department – the first appointed Head of Department was the external colleague, scholar, assoc. prof. JUDr. Milan Čič, CSc. from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava for the period from 1st September 1973 to 31st January 1977. First full-time members of the Department as of 1st September 1973 were JUDr. Mária Vorobeľová (Hencovská) and JUDr. Daniel Miženko. Taking into consideration the small number of academic staff at the foundation of the Department, the role and assistance of external teachers from other faculties (especially from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava and Faculty of Medicine at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice) was particularly significant and very decisive in the follow-up period and in relation to the formation and staffing of the Department.
For several years after the foundation of the Department, its activities were undertaken with the support of such distinguished external colleagues from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava as were – JUDr. Milan Čič, JUDr. Ján Chudík, prof. JUDr. Eugen Husár, CSc., assoc. prof. JUDr. Gabriela Nikšová, CSc., together with other prominent experts from the Faculty of Medicine at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice – assoc. prof. MUDr. Jozef Kafka, CSc. and prof. MUDr. Ján Lukáči. In a relatively short period of time the Department gradually expanded their workforce and engaged more full-time young generation teachers, in 1974 JUDr. Viktória Vaľová and JUDr. Jozef Madliak, in 1977 JUDr. Jozef Olej, and in 1980 JUDr. Miroslav Kráľ became the members of the Department.
The position of the Head of Department has been held by the following in succession: assoc. prof. JUDr. Milan Čič, CSc. (from 1st September 1973 to 31st January 1977), assoc. prof. JUDr. Anton Rašla – from 1st February 1977, assoc. prof. JUDr. Jozef Olej, CSc., assoc. prof. JUDr. Mária Hencovská, CSc., assoc. prof. JUDr. Jozef Madliak, CSc., assoc. prof. JUDr. Sergej Romža, PhD.
Over the course of time the composition of the academic staff has changed, apart from teachers who are current members of the Department, the following legal practitioners – JUDr. Tomáš Čverčko, JUDr. Emil Dubňaský, JUDr. Miroslav Baňacký, PhD., JUDr. Martin Puchalla, PhD., JUDr. Ján Mihaľov, PhD., were also former full-time employees of the Department and now hold important offices as judges, lawyers, or advisors at the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic. The Department has always favoured the idea of the involvement of specialists from legal practice in its activities; in the academic year 1987/88 the Department welcomed JUDr. Ľudovít Kovaľ, an expert in criminalistics. Teaching was also conducted by the representatives of the judiciary – judges of the Regional Court in Košice (JUDr. Karol Kučera, JUDr. Miroslav Osif, JUDr. Ladislav Tomčovčík), judges of the District Court in Košice – okolie (JUDr. Miro- slav Baňacký, PhD. – at present in the office at the County Court in Košice), and District Court of Košice I. (JUDr. Martin Baločko – at present in the office at the County Court in Košice).
