Pravni vjesnik, Vol. 41 No. 1, 2025.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.25234/pv/30678
AN ATTEMPT TO UNIFY MISDEMEANOUR LAW IN INTERWAR YUGOSLAV STATE (1918–1941)
Dunja Milotić
orcid.org/0000-0002-0501-2436
; Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Trg Republike Hrvatske 14, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
In the regulation of misdemeanour law in the interwar Yugoslav state, legal particularism prevailed. The sources of misdemeanour law that were valid in certain legal areas until the uni f ication in 1918 continued to apply. Misdemeanours were considered the smallest offences, so efforts to standardize misdemeanour law were made as a part of the harmonisation of crimi nal legislation. The Criminal Code regulated only crimes and offences, while misdemeanours should have been regulated by a separate law. The preparation of the initial draft of the law on misdemeanours was entrusted to Serbian legal experts, which resulted in the influence of the Serbian regulation of misdemeanour law, as well as the acceptance of the Serbian terminology. Due to the premature dissolution of the National Assembly, the bills on misdemeanours of 1926 and 1927 were not adopted. After the adoption of the Criminal Code of 1929, a special law temporarily extended the validity of the previous legal regulations on misdemeanours until the adoption of a unified law. The new bill on misdemeanours of 1935 was accepted by the National Assembly in July 1937. The bill was then forwarded to the Senate for approval, but the Senate stopped its adoption. The paper will present an attempt to pass a unified law on misdemeanours based on the analysis of bills on misdemeanours of 1927, 1926 and 1935 and their explanations, as well as discussions about them in professional newspapers of the time and in the National Assembly and Senate.
Keywords
misdemeanour law; Kingdom of Serbs; Croats and Slovenes; Kingdom of Yugoslavia; interwar period; legal particularism; unification
Hrčak ID:
330684
URI
Publication date:
30.4.2025.
Visits: 559 *