INTERNATIONAL CRIMES IN THE CRIMINAL LEGISLATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA Cover Image

МЕЂУНАРОДНИ ЗЛОЧИНИ У КРИВИЧНОМ ЗАКОНОДАВСТВУ РЕПУБЛИКЕ СРБИЈЕ
INTERNATIONAL CRIMES IN THE CRIMINAL LEGISLATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Author(s): Dragan Jovašević
Subject(s): Criminal Law
Published by: Правни факултет Универзитета у Нишу
Keywords: international legal documents; code; criminal act; liability; court; sanction

Summary/Abstract: After a long historical development, the second half of the 20th century finally inaugurated a new branch of penal law – International Criminal Law. Considering its legal nature and characteristics, it may be located somewhere between the national criminal law and international public law but it still preserves its specific features and independence. The basic and most important notion and institute in this branch of law is certainly the international criminal act. In the theory of law, there are several theoretical standpoints on the notion and contents of international crime. Yet, generally speaking, an international criminal act implies a socially dangerous, illegal act committed by a criminal offender and defined as a criminal act whose perpetrator is to be punished in compliance with the prescribed criminal law. Accordingly, this notion includes the following basic elements which distinguish an international criminal act 1) an act of man (an act of an adult person resulting from a commission of an act, an omission to act, and a failure to provide proper supervision), the consequence and causation; 2) the social danger; 3) the unlawful or illegal nature of this act; 4) the definition of this act in legal provisions; and 5) the perpetrator’s culpability. There are two kinds of international criminal acts: international criminal acts in a narrow sense and international criminal acts in a broad sense. The most significant are certainly the international criminal acts in a narrow sense which are aimed at violating or endangering the universal, general civilization values – international law and humanity, which are the subject of protection in these criminal acts. Apart from the international criminal act, the theory of law also includes a foreign criminal act (any criminal act with a foreign element). Although these two notions largely coincide, they are also considerably different. Apart from the general notion of the international criminal act, the theory of law also recognizes a special notion of the international criminal act, whose characteristics and specific forms make a clear distinction between some international criminal acts and criminal liability of their perpetrators. In fact, all international legal documents in this field (as well as the national criminal legislation) recognize an entire system of various incrimination which are punishable by various kinds of punishment (as the basic kinds of criminal sanctions). In this paper, the author has analysed the notion and the basic elements of international crimes in the criminal legislation of the Republic of Serbia.

  • Issue Year: LIX/2012
  • Issue No: 59
  • Page Range: 1-26
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: Serbian