Quality of Indictments and Verdicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a Feature of Efficient Processing of Corruption-Related Cases Cover Image

Kvalitet optužnica i presuda u Bosni i Hercegovini kao faktor efikasnog procesuiranja krivičnih djela korupcije
Quality of Indictments and Verdicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a Feature of Efficient Processing of Corruption-Related Cases

Author(s): Ljiljana Filipović
Subject(s): Politics, Criminal Law, Corruption - Transparency - Anti-Corruption, Administrative Law
Published by: Analitika – Centar za društvena istraživanja, sva prava pridržana
Keywords: criminal proceedings; criminal law in BiH; legal system in BiH;
Summary/Abstract: The Recommendation on Judges of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member states (CM / Rec (2010) 12) defines efficiency as making quality decisions within a reasonable time after impartial consideration of all issues. A quality court decision and an impartial consideration of all issues (factual and legal) are integral parts of the efficiency thus understood. After all, only such court decisions can achieve the purpose of criminal proceedings - the protection of society from crime, but also the protection of basic human rights of persons suspected or accused of criminal offenses. Only such court decisions can contribute to the rule of law and legal certainty in terms of the predictability of the consequences of criminal law violations. // Similar understandings of the efficiency or effectiveness of criminal proceedings can be found in criminal law theory. Krapac considers that “effective ... is a fairly conducted criminal proceedings whose duration is appropriate to the circumstances of the case and in which the competent court correctly distinguished innocence from the guilt of the accused and imposed a legal criminal sanction on the latter”. Efficiency, therefore, implies not only respect for all procedural guarantees that guarantee the right to a fair trial, but also the adoption of a correct court decision, ie. the one in which the court correctly ruled on the guilt of the accused. In other words, “achieving efficiency must be within the framework of legal and fair procedure” // Therefore, it is necessary to deal with other components of the efficiency of the judiciary and criminal proceedings in order to raise its level. The quality of prosecutorial and court decisions is certainly one of those components.

  • Page Count: 33
  • Publication Year: 2017
  • Language: Bosnian