Lawyer, Vol. 40 No. 83, 2006.
Professional paper
Judical Process Against Criminal Acts in Continental Croatia in the Early Modern Ages
Antun Bilić
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present the course of criminal proceedings in Hungary and the continantal part of Croatia at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century. Author focuses on the specifi c historical context which surrounds the legal procedure and reveals its medieval origin. Most of the procedural forms were based on customary law while there was no idea of state sovereignity and its legislative power. Procedure was slow and ineffective and criminal prosecution always started with a private action because there was no public interest in prosecuting the criminal offences. Modernization,
introduced by Habsburg monarchs at the beginning of the 16th century, which tried to install the concept of public criminal prosecution, was strongly opposed by Hungarian and Croatian nobility deeply rooted in their ancestral freedoms and privileges.
This paper is based on „Directio methodica“, a book by Ivan Kitonić, who was one of the leading experts of his time on legal procedure. „Directio methodica“ was fi rst published in 1619. and it was intended to serve as a guide-book for parties without any legal education.
Keywords
medieval procedural forms; customary law; proclamatio; communis inquisitio; legal remedies; appellatio
Hrčak ID:
8555
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2006.
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