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This paper presents the notion of applicability of legal norms based on the analysis of the existing legal literature in the field of legal theory and legal philosophy. Through four main units, the concept and types of applicability, its relation to other properties of legal norms, criteria of applicability, and finally, the systems of applicable norms and their relation to the legal system are discussed. The applicability criteria are demonstrated using examples from the field of criminal law; their legal nature is being explained, their functions, and structure. Most of the examples used in this paper are from Croatian legislation and Constitutional Court Case-Law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the problem of raising rate of child labour and its different manifestations. Convention on the Rights of the Child (further: Convention) is undoubtedly the most important instrument of legal child protection and the affirmation of the child's status as the matter of law. Therefore, its role and importance in protecting the child against economic exploitation and, what is even more serious - problems of child labour, will be discussed. The paper also presents the role of the Convention's Facultative protocols which regulate the questions regarding the issue of ivovment of children in armed conflicts, child trafficking, child prostitution and pornography, as well as the role of the Convention of the International Labour Organization which protects the children's rights to protection from economic exploitation. As the Republic of Croatia accepted and ratified the Convention on the Rights of Child along with its Facultative protocols, it is obliged to apply them in Croatian legislation, that will be shown on the examples of family, work and criminal law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the author focuses on theoretical and practical aspects of statute of limitations in criminal substantial and criminal procedural law. The paper consists both of - historical and philosophical consideration, but also practical aspects of the statute in Croatian substantive criminal legislation and jurisdiction, point out the most critical issues that should be reconsidered and changed in legislation. Moreover, the author has taken the opportunity to point out the importance of moral aspects and state responsibility, when certain disfunctionalism in reaching justice occurs. The role of individual approach in prosecuting and punishing is crucial here, and the author endorses the statute of limitations only if it is subjected to the person who demonstrates rehabilitation. Within legal, moral, and philosophical doubts presented, the author finally concludes with a question: if justice is already blind, are we allowed to force it to hold a stopwatch too? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present the course of criminal proceedings in Hungary and the continantal part of Croatia at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century. Author focuses on the specific historical context which surrounds the legal procedure and reveals its medieval origin. Most of the procedural forms were based on customary law while there was no idea of state sovereignity and its legislative power. Procedure was slow and ineffective and criminal prosecution always started with a private action because there was no public interest in prosecuting the criminal offences. Modernization, introduced by Habsburg monarchs at the beginning of the 16th century, which tried to install the concept of public criminal prosecution, was strongly opposed by Hungarian and Croatian nobility deeply rooted in their ancestral freedoms and privileges. This paper is based on ,,Directio methodica", a book by Ivan Kitonić, who was one of the leading experts of his time on legal procedure. ,,Directio methodica" was first published in 1619. and it was intended to serve as a guide-book for parties without any legal education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show changes that the Penal Code brought into the Croatian legal system with regard to rape, in comparison with earlier legislation. The criminal area of rape has been spread, so that it contains not just sexual intercourse but also sexual acts equal to it. Now the perpetrator can be male or female, the victim can also be male or female, and the existence of marriage is not relevant. The new changes have opened problems which judges usually meet in practice and which the author has tried to show in her paper. Firstly, the act which is equal to sexual intercourse is not defined in the Code. Also, there are some problems about the question of complicity in this criminal act. Proposals have been made to abandon the notion that rape is a crime in which complicity is not possible. The percentage of rapes which remain in the stage of attempt is very high. Also, the Courts are faced with many difficulties in distinguishing attempted rape from the completed crime of sexual assault. It is also quite difficult to determine the factual difference between attempt and voluntary abandonment with regard to this crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author analyses the provisions of the family law that regulate the acknowledgment of paternity under unlawful compulsion and also briefly dwells upon the criminal law provisions on force. The author deals with the positive legislation aspects of the matter in question with emphasis on the legal possibilities of the victim. In addition, the author briefly analyses the issue of protecting the rights of the child whose paternity has been acknowledged under unlawful compulsion referring to the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child. Finally, given that the paper is primarily an analysis of the subject and not a research thesis, the author focuses on the crucial facts and significant opinions mentioned in the previous chapters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with two spheres of application of extraordinary cognition - criminal and civil law, while outlining its organizational and functional rules viewed in development from Augustus to Justinian. Analysis of cognitio extra ordinem in the protection of individuals' interests shows that this public-law procedure appeared as an exception to regular, formulary procedure of a private-law character, and that it was applied by new organs created by Augustus' delegation of judicial powers drawn from tribunitia potestas and imperium proconsulare. The gradual development of the Roman state to absolute oriental-type monarchy led to the consolidation of a network of hierarchically organised judicial organs, as well as of rules for a single dual-instance procedure, which in the time of Justinian took on their final shape of an exclusive judicial procedure of a libellar (written) type. Similarly, analysis of cognitio extra ordinem in the protection of the interests of the Roman community (at first, especially of the person of the princeps) shows that this public-law procedure of an inquisitory nature (with a written judgment containing not only the decision on the sanction, but also the legal grounds) appeared as extraordinary in relation to the regular system of quaestiones perpetuae characterised by an accusatory procedure. It was applied by new organs formed by delegation of Augustus' auctoritas. However, up until the 2nd century the Senate court operated, and developed its specific procedure, the so-called cognitio senatus. Further strengthening of imperial power during the 4th and 5th centuries highlighted the principles of singular and efficient cognitional criminal procedure, but also limited the principles of publicity, oral litigation and judges' freedom of ruling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]