Izvansudska nagodba u Republici Hrvatskoj
Out-of-court Settlement in the Republic of Croatia

Summary/Abstract: During the last three years in the Republic of Croatia we developed a model of the Out-of-court Settlement for Juvenile and Young Adult Criminal Offenders, based on certain foreign models, particularly those of Austria and Germany. The legal basis for developing such an approach was found in Article 64 of the Law on Juvenile Courts. The provisions in question authorise the state prosecutor to decide not to institute criminal proceedings if the minor/younger adult is ready to, in the specific case and according to his or her own abilities, repair or compensate for the damage caused by the criminal offence, during a mediation process in out-of-court settlement. The project was implemented in three Croatian cities - Zagreb, Osijek and Split, and in addition to continuous education provided by foreign experts, it included direct mediation activities within the Office for Out-of-court Settlement, as well as permanent supervision. The results so far (the total number of out-of-court settlements reached in all three cities is 108) are very good and indicate the acceptance of the out-of-court settlement by all participants in the process. Based on all of the above, we propose to implement mediation in the out-of-court settlement process on the entire territory of the Republic of Croatia with respect to the juvenile and young adult criminal offenders.

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