Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.54070/hljk.30.1.7
The Course of Proceedings Against Zrinski and Frankopan
Mirjan Damaška
Sažetak
The paper was written within the scientific research project “Zrinski-Frankopan Conspiracy - Legal Aspects” of the Marija and Mirjan Damaška Foundation. The author not only conceived, initiated, and financed the project, but also acted as the main researcher and wrote two introductory studies, the second of which is this paper. The originality of the paper stems not only from the author’s great historical legal and criminal process expertise, but also from the fact that the paper represents the first legal analysis of the original documents of the case files in the criminal proceedings against the Croatian noblemen Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan. The author analysed the criminal proceedings against the two Croatian noblemen on the basis of the procedural file and supporting documents from the criminal case stored in the Austrian State Archives which were for the first time compiled, consolidated, and published in the book Criminal Proceedings against Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan – Documents. Out of a total of 90 published documents, 31 were translated from German, Latin, and Italian into Croatian for the first time. The theoretical analysis of the course of the criminal proceedings is immersed in the historical, comparative, and political context, with a
detailed presentation of specific events related to defendants, witnesses, and investigative and
administrative-judicial bodies. The author determined that a mixed type of criminal procedure
according to the Austrian Ferdinandea Code was applied, and describes and analyses its inquisitorial and accusatory procedural forms in a historical comparative perspective, as well as the specificities related to the noble status of the accused, the exceptional gravity of the crime of laesae majestatis, torture, secrecy, and the two-stage imperial decision-making process. Individual procedural stages are described in detail, beginning with the investigation, including the initiation of proceedings and the inquisitio specialis, then the trial, from the composition and jurisdiction of the court, indictments, written submissions of the inquisitor and the defence attorney and the prosecutor’s replies, the proposed decisions of the judge reporter, provisional judgments, statements of the emperor’s Secret Conference, and lastly the announcement of the emperor’s decision and the execution of the sentences. The historical significance of the proceedings lies in the fact that, with the execution of Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan, the power of two Croatian aristocratic families, which gave Croatia as many as twelve bans in the period from the Middle Ages until 1671, was broken. If they had not disappeared from the political stage, Croatian history would, in the author’s opinion, have looked very different.
Ključne riječi
Petar Zrinski, Fran Krsto Frankopan, criminal proceedings, Zrinski-Franko- pan conspiracy
Hrčak ID:
313052
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.11.2023.
Posjeta: 253 *