Objectives:
Description of terminological and historical backgrounds of the criminal law development: from the private law sector to the public law sector

Material and methods:
Descriptive and comparative method. Analysis and synthesis.

Results:
This article describes the changes that have occurred in the course of time in the area of criminal law, the ways of punishment, and the changes which have led to the transformation of criminal law into the public law sector.

Conclusions:
Although the change in the criminal law consisting in its transformation into the legal sector having the character of public law, as well as the change in the "prison facilities" consisting in their "deprivatization" is considered from the historical point of view to be correct, it is not appropriate to consider this process historically completed, and at the same time it is not necessary at this time to reject any privatization in the area of criminal law. Even the modern system of prison facilities, which has existed for several centuries, has undergone serious changes. The change in the social conditions that are ongoing and will go on in the future also requires a change in the law as such, not excluding the criminal law.