Plea bargaining before the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Abstract

The authors in the work deal with the plea agreement in the international law - before the Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. International law, which is glorified from the one side, and criticized for the other, gradually developed in the field of criminal procedure. This development is, however, largely influenced by political factors, which can be best seen in the proceedings before the Tribunal, where the individual rules are created during the criminal proceedings and particular amendments, followed by implementation of American legal solutions, despite all critics of the same rules in that system, as well as different opinions of the trial judges in the Tribunal. After the introductory remarks, the authors explain the legal basis of the plea bargaining. Then, they explain the majority of criminal cases in which occurred guilty plea. Through these cases, the authors came to the conclusion that, although in the national legal systems plea negotiation and plea agreement contributes to the efficiency of the criminal proceedings, briefly prescribed legal rules for its conclusion and application before the Tribunal once again proved a distinct selectivity in the delivering of justice in this area of international law.

Autori u radu obrađuju sporazum o priznanju krivičnog dela u međunarodnom pravu, i to pred Tribunalom za bivšu Jugoslaviju. Međunarodno pravo, koje se sa jedne strane glorifikuje, a sa druge kritikuje, postepeno se razvilo i u domenu krivičnog procesnog zakonodavstva. Ovaj razvoj je, ipak, pretežno bio uslovljen političkim faktorima, što se najbolje može videti u postupcima pred Tribunalom, pred kojim su pojedina pravila postupka krojena za vreme trajanja krivičnog postupka, praćena implementiranjem zakonskih rešenja iz američkog prava uprkos svim kritikama upućenim istim pravilima u ovom sistemu, kao i različitim mišljenjima sudija u Tribunalu. Nakon uvodnih razmatranja, autori su objasnili zakonske osnove zaključenja sporazuma o priznanju krivičnog dela, a potom obrazložili većinu krivičnih predmeta u kojima je došlo do priznanja krivice. Kroz te krivične postupke autori su došli do zaključka da, iako u nacionalnim pravnim sistemima pregovaranje o priznanju krivice i zaključenje nagodbe doprinosi efikasnosti krivičnog postupka, šturo propisivanje pravila njenog zaključenja, a potom i njihova primena, još jednom su dokazali izrazitu selektivnost u deljenju pravde pred Tribunalom.