COLLABORATORS OF JUSTICE: COMPARATIVE LEGAL SOLUTIONS AND CROATIAN CRIMINAL PROCEDURAL LAW

Abstract

This paper analyses the procedural position of “collaborators of justice” – (potential) suspects or defendants who choose to cooperate with the authorities by contributing to the detection and prosecution of other serious crimes and perpetrators, primarily by testifying before the court. The aim of the study is to provide an overview of consensual forms and measures of reward for collaborators of justice in comparative law and then to analyse the legal position of a crown witness and a person granted witness immunity, as “collaborators of justice”, in Croatian criminal procedural law. The study is conducted through a comparative legal perspective and with regard to certain issues that have so far been problematised in the scientific and professional literature and in domestic jurisprudence, and which include: the specific goal of these consensual forms and the application of the principle of proportionality, the discretion of the state attorney and judicial control, the procedural and defence rights, and, finally, victims’ rights. Special attention is given to an analysis of the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia and its legal standards, particularly concerning certain issues of the legality of the examination of a crown witness, as well as the legality of examination of a person granted witness immunity.