British influence on continental legal tradition in Croatia: Holy Grail or a Wrong Trail?

Abstract

The Croatian legal system is traditionally under the dominant influence of the Germanic legal tradition. This is a logical consequence of historical circumstances, which state that present-day Croatia was long part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the field of criminal law, which is the focus of this paper, there is a significant influence of Austrian, German, and Swiss criminal law. However, since 2008, new trends have emerged, first evident in procedural law (through the introduction of the previously typical AngloAmerican institution of plea bargaining in criminal proceedings), and then from 2013 also in substantive criminal law. In the Criminal Code of 2013, sexual offenses were modeled after the English Sexual Offences Act of 2003, which has sparked considerable controversy in theory and practice. In this text, the author critically examines this legislative shift in tradition from the perspective of comparing the historical circumstances of the English and Croatian criminal law backgrounds. The author discusses the differences in criminal justice systems of these countries, compares the circumstances of the origin and shaping of sexual offenses in the mentioned legislations, and presents the results of their own research conducted in Croatia, reflecting whether the new legal solution was successful and whether it achieved its purpose. Based on this, the author provides an answer to the hypothetical question of whether a solution implemented from one legal tradition can successfully exist in the conditions of another significantly different legal tradition.