Prof. Dr Thierry Godel

Thierry Godel has been a Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the Faculty of Law of UniDistance Suisse since 2021, where he teaches general criminal law and criminal procedure.

He holds a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Criminal Judiciary (specialization in Criminal Procedure, 2009) from the École romande pour la magistrature pénale in Neuchâtel, and earned his PhD in Law from the University of Fribourg in 2018. He also lectures on general criminal law and criminal procedure at the École romande en administration judiciaire (since 2018) and within the Swiss Military Justice system (since 2011), as part of training programs for members of the judiciary. From 2010 to 2021, he served as lecturer at the Chair of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Fribourg.

His research focuses on the criminal law aspects of violence and extremism, and on the rights of victims of violence, particularly from a comparative perspective (between the Swiss and Spanish criminal justice systems), as well as on the criminal law of disinformation and on criminal law in armed conflicts.

Professor Godel is co-editor and head of the editorial board of the journal Droit pénal et Politique Criminelle (DPPC), and is the author of several reference works in the fields of general criminal law (with José Hurtado Pozo, Droit pénal général, 3rd/4th ed., 2019/2023) and military criminal law (Etude critique et approfondie de la Procédure pénale militaire, 2018 ; L’interdiction pour les Suisses de servir dans des forces armées étrangères, 2023).

Alongside his academic activities, he has held several positions within the Swiss Military Justice system, serving as Federal Examining Magistrate (2011–2015), Deputy Head of the Legal Service (2015–2018), and, since 2021, as a Military Prosecutor (militia).