Stručni rad

https://doi.org/10.54070/hljk.30.2.8

Procedure of the Indictment Council When Deciding on the (Non-)existence of Probable Caus

Jasmina Sabađija ; Općinski sud Novi Zagreb, Zagreb, Hrvatska *
Toni Ivandić

* Dopisni autor.

Sažetak

Every legal system with a regulated criminal procedure, including the judicial system of the Republic of Croatia, strives on the one hand to ensure that the perpetrators of criminal offences are punished for the offence in a fair procedure, and on the other hand to ensure that no one who is innocent is convicted. Therefore, a logical step in achieving this effort proclaimed as a principle of the criminal procedure of the Republic of Croatia is to prescribe mechanisms to prevent criminal procedures which, considering the amount and quality of evidence, could be qualified as hopeless and arbitrary. Consequently, in a series of provisions and at different stages of the procedure, the legislator gives the court the authority to take actions and make decisions aimed at preventing the conduct of criminal proceedings for acts that are not criminal acts and against persons who are not perpetrators of criminal acts. In the realisation of this intention of the legislator, the indictment council plays an extremely important role, whose ratio legis is to filter both criminal proceedings that have started and those that have yet to formally start, all in order to prevent the unnecessary, and thus for the judicial system and the parties in the proceedings, harmful conduct of those proceedings which, with regard to procedural or material deficiencies, are hopeless. In addition to the described function of the indictment council, it can be indisputably stated that this function rests on probable cause, as the standard of proof. Therefore, this paper attempts to analyse and present the meaning of probable cause,
the sources and method of determining probable cause, and the related extent of the powers
of the indictment council in filtering proceedings, as well as in what way and to what extent
indictment councils in practice bring to life the powers vested in them by law.

Ključne riječi

indictment council, probable cause, extent of authority, examination and determination of facts, analysis and evaluation of evidence

Hrčak ID:

313085

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/313085

Datum izdavanja:

5.12.2023.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 1.360 *