УСЛОВНА ОСУДА У НЕМАЧКОМ КРИВИЧНОМ ПРАВУ
THE SUSPENDED SENTENCE IN GERMAN CRIMINAL LAW

Summary/Abstract: From the ancient times until today, criminal law in all countries has provided different criminal sanctions as social control measures. These are court-imposed coercive measures that take away or limit certain rights and freedoms of criminal offenders. Sanctions are applied to natural or legal persons who violate the norms of the legal order and cause damage or endanger other legal goods that enjoy legal protection. In order to effectively protect social values jeopardized by the commission of crime, state legislations prescribe several kinds of criminal sanctions: 1) penalties, 2) precautions, 3) safety measures, 4) penalties for juvenile offenders, and 5) sanctions for legal persons. Penalties are the basic, the oldest and the most important type of criminal sanctions. They are prescribed for the largest number of criminal offences. Imposed instead of or alongside with penalties, warning measures have particularly important role in jurisprudence. Since they were introduced in the system of criminal sanctions in the early 20th century, there has been a notable increase in the application of these measures, particularly in cases involving negligent and accidental offences, and minor offences that do not cause serious consequences, whose perpetrators are not persons with criminal characteristics. Warning measures (suspended sentence) are envisaged in all contemporary criminal legislations, including the German legislation. Suspended sentence is a conditional stay of execution of the sentence of imprisonment for a specified time, provided that the convicted person fulfills the imposed obligations and does not commit another criminal offense. Two conditions must be fulfilled for the application of these sanctions: a) the formal requirement, which is attached to the sentence of imprisonment; and b) the substantive requirement, which implies the court assessment that the application of these sanctions is justified and necessary in a particular case. Many modern legislations include two different types of conditional convictions: 1) ordinary (classical) suspended sentence, and 2) a suspended sentence with supervision. If the convicted person fails to comply with a court order, the law provides for the mandatory or optional revocation of the suspended sentence.

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