CULPABILITY AS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF INDICTMENT AND THE OPERATIVE PART OF THE JUDGMENT

Abstract

The author deals with culpability as a subjective element of the general notion of a criminal offense, which must be an integral part of every indictment and the operative part (disposition) of the judgment of conviction. First, the article presents the theoretical understanding of the notion of a criminal offense as accepted by the Serbian legislator and the notion of culpability in Serbian criminal law theory and current legislation. Then, the author focuses on the content of indictments filed against the accused person, including the prosecutor’s recommendation for imposing criminal sanctions against a juvenile offender, and the content of the judgment on conviction, with specific reference to culpability as an essential element of every indictment and the judgment on conviction. The author further analyzes the issue of the subjective and objective identity of the indictment and judgment in theory and legislation, with focus of culpability and existence or non-existence of a violation of the identity of indictment and judgment in case of entering culpability into the disposition of the judgment on conviction. Finally, the author provides examples from the practice of higher-instance courts in Serbia and a critical standpoint on the legal reasoning in the decisions where the court found a violation of the Criminal Code, given that the scope of an indictment has been exceeded in terms of culpability.