PETTY OFFENCE LAW IN CROATIA AND SLAVONIA FROM THE MID-19TH CENTURY TO 1918

Abstract

The paper presents and analyzes the regulation of substantive and procedural petty offence law in Croatia and Slavonia from the middle of the 19th century, when the development of civil society and the modern legal system began with the introduction of unified laws, until the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918. In the observed period, within the category of misdemeanors, which are the least serious type of punishable acts, petty offences and administrative transgressions were distinguished. Following the adopted threefold division of criminal offences, the said were prescribed in the Criminal Law on Crimes, Misdemeanors, and Petty Offences from 1852, as well as in a number of other special laws, and their punishment was the jurisdiction of courts. Administrative transgressions were prescribed by many laws, orders, and local police regulations, and their punishment included the jurisdiction of administrative bodies. The procedure for petty offences before district courts was conducted according to the provisions contained in a separate chapter of the Criminal Procedure Act from 1875. The procedure for administrative transgressions before administrative bodies was regulated by a series of decrees passed during neo-absolutism, which were subsequently supplemented by law and decrees with the aim of simplifying and harmonizing it with the judicial petty offence proceedings. In addition to the normative framework, the paper will also point out practical problems and questions that have arisen regarding the punishment of petty offences and administrative transgressions.