10.5937/pravzap0-4998 = Synthesis of the common-law accusatorial and the continental mixed criminal procedural justice system: The example of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: Part 1.

Abstract

In this paper, the author analyses criminal procedural rules created as an expression of the synthesis of the common-law accusatorial and the continental mixed criminal procedural justice system in International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The field of analytical treatment in this paper is limited not only to textual material of criminal procedural rules, but the author also attempts to demonstrate the practical achievements and implications of criminal procedural institutes. In Part 1 (published in this issue) the author deals with the general concept of the ICTY procedural law. More specifically, the research will focus on sources of procedural law and it follows the different pre-trial procedural stages. Furthermore, the reasons of these synthesis are revealed and categorized into those caused by the practical need - to make the process faster and more efficient (justified by the right to an expeditious trial), and those originating from the flexible adaptation of procedural rules to the legal habits and type of education of lawyers who are referred to the application of the rules. The aim of the paper is to point out the practical consequences of the criminal procedure roles and to outline their practical achievements, depending on the underlying factors. This goal is of great practical importance, considering that legal theory in this area has no influence on establishing criminal procedural rules, but it is also out of step with the critical analysis of some criminal procedural law institutes that are gradually being transferred from the ICTY to other international or national criminal procedure rules. The selected issue has been fairly neglected in our literature, although actualized in recent amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure of Serbia. By these changes, the continental type of mixed system of criminal procedure has been replaced by the model inspired by Anglo-American criminal procedural law.