Composition of the criminal courts

Abstract

The composition of a criminal court stands as one of the most interesting issues in the comparative law. Different viewpoints when it comes to the need of including non-professional citizens in the contemporary criminal procedure have contributed to interesting approaches related to regulating this issue. First of all, there are original jury systems that are a feature related mainly to the Anglo-American legal systems, but whose ideas have found their place in the European legislature as well. Furthermore, there are countries where the trial body stands as a separate authority, which consists of professional judges and lay judges, whereas some of the countries have both professional judges and lay judges, the first being in charge of resolving legal issues, and the second ones being in charge of factual issues. There are many articles devoted to the jury systems in the world, but in a very small proportion of them we could find solutions from the mixed court of the Balkan countries. Mixed court is one of the features continental countries. The authors compare Balkan countries, where Slovenia and Croatia being the European Union Members, whereas the rest of them are in the process of accession. Thereby, some of the countries strive to get their courts become more professional by leaving out citizens non-professional from the composition of trial chamber, while some of them have kept them, whereby the scope of their jurisdiction varies from one country to another. Today, it is a great question whether a mixed court will survive legislative changes, due to the criticism of the jurists and non-jurists.

Sastav sudećih veća jedno je od najinteresantnijih pitanja današ­njice, pogotovo u vremenu velikih reformskih poduhvata. Različita shvatanja potrebe za učešćem građana-laika u savremenom krivičnom postupku doprinela su zanimljivim pristupima u regulisanju tog pitanja. Na prvom mestu, postoje pravi porotni sistemi, koji su odlika prevashodno angloameričkog pravnog sistema, ali su njegove ideje našle mesto i u evropskim zakonodavstvima. Postoje i države u kojima sudeće veće predstavlja jedno telo, sastavljeno od sudija profesionalaca i sudija porotnika, dok u pojedinim imamo, takođe, i sudije profesionalce i porotnike, ali su prvi zaduženi za rešavanje pravnih, a drugi za rešavanje činjeničnih pitanja. Autori u radu porede strukturu sudskih veća u krivičnim postupcima za punoletna lica u pojedinim balkanskim zemljama, od kojih su, primera radi, Slovenija i Hrvatska članice Evropske unije, dok su druge u procesu pridruživanja. Neke od njih teže profesionalizaciji sudstva, izbacujući građane-laike iz sastava sudskog veća, dok su ih druge zadržale, pri čemu obim njihove nadležnosti varira od države do države.