Full text of the paper:
Proceedings of the Faculty of Law, Novi Sad
2024, vol. LVIII, no. 3, p. 621-783
working language: Serbian
Review paper
udk:343.37:340.142
doi:10.5937/zrpfns58-53867
Author:
Aleksandar Todorović
Bar Association of Vojvodina
a.todorovic.kikinda@gmail.com
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2501-6351
Summary:
The paper analyses the practice of the Supreme Court (of Cassation) in cases in which that court decided on the limits of criminal incrimination in blanket crimes against the economy. For many years, defense attorneys in these cases have been raising the issue of the distinction between criminal and civil liability before the Supreme Court, as well as the issue of the specific nature of the act of execution that is charged to the defendants when they are prosecuted for blanket crimes against the economy. The defense attorneys’ attempts to obtain from the Supreme Court an even slightly precise answer on the line of distinction between criminal and civil liability, and an answer to the question of the limits to which the act of execution of the aforementioned blanket crimes can be extended have not borne fruit. The aim of the paper is to test the consistency of the Supreme (Cassation) Court’s actions in applying the principle of legality in blanket crimes against the economy in relation to the standards set by the European Court of Human Rights. By comparing the positions taken by the Supreme Court in its decisions with the positions of legal theory on the significance, nature and content of the guarantees arising from the principle of legality, and by further comparing them with the positions taken by the European Court of Human Rights on this issue, the paper concludes that the principle of legality in blanket crimes against the economy is completely meaningless, and that the defendants are left to completely arbitrary prosecution for these crimes. The flexibility of judicial interpretation in determining the limits of liability in blanket criminal offenses against the economy has gone so far that it can truly be said that courts in Serbia act in these cases guided by the principle of honesty, and not the principle of legality, hence the subtitle of the paper.
Keywords:
limits of incrimination, principle of legality, blanket criminal acts, abuse of position of a responsible person.