Meting out penalty in law of torts

Abstract

This paper describes the manners of meting out a penalty in the law of torts. In contrast to criminal law, the law of torts uses three systems of meting out the tortuous penalty: The system of relatively defined penalties, the system of absolutely defined penalties and the system of proportionate penalties. The system of relatively defined penalties is dominant, but the other two also apply to some torts. This paper analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of these systems as well as the range of their application in the domestic law of torts. It also points to the differences emerging in our codes of torts to this effect as well as to the need to overcome them in the course of forthcoming reform of our tort-related legislation.

U radu se govori o načinima odmeravanja kazne u prekršajnom pravu. Za razliku od krivičnog prava, u prekršajnom pravu se koriste tri sistema odmeravanja prekršajne kazne: Sistem relativno određenih kazni, sistem apsolutno određenih kazni i sistem proporcionalnih kazni. Dominantan je sistem relativno određenih kazni, ali za pojedine vrste prekršaja u primeni su i druga dva sistema. U članku se analiziraju prednosti i nedostaci ovih sistema kao i dometi njihove primene u našem prekršajnom pravu. Takođe se ukazuje na razlike koje se po ovim pitanjima pojavljuju u našim prekršajnim zakonima, kao i na potrebu njihovog prevazilaženja prilikom predstojeće reforme našeg prekršajnog zakonodavstva.