TWO LEVELS OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE HEAD OFFICIALS IN THE STATE (HEAD OF STATE, PRIME MINISTER, MINISTERS)

Snežana Radovanović

Abstract

The matter of criminal responsibility of the head officials in state is the «key question» for rule of law, being the basic principle of democracy in the contemporary democratic states. There are different solutions for it in different legal systems, depending of what idea of sovereignty is accepted and to whom it belongs. These legal systems in which, concerning criminal procedure as impeachment procedure, the parliament is in charge, are more inclined to the people’s sovereignty principle and omnipotence of parliament. Such competence of parliament reflects electoral choice of the voters. The other group of legal systems include criminal responsibility procedure of the head officials in state in the competence of the highest state courts, due to its accountability and skills. However, these systems also admit the presence of some political elements in such procedures, referring to criminal responsibility of the president of the state, prime minister and ministers of the government, if they breach the constitution and laws in their political activities. Therefore, their criminal cases are very often in the competence of the constitutional courts, if they exist, because such special courts, in their decision making process, usually take into consideration political elements, while estimating the outer perimeter of the head official’s competences. Some of the states of this group prefer the principal of equality in criminal procedure, putting it in the competence of the ordinary courts for the head officials in state as well as for other citizens, too. Although, states provide, very often, two levels of criminal responsibility of the president, prime minister and ministers, «impeachment» procedure on one hand, and parallel procedure in the competence of the ordinary court (general or special jurisdiction), on the other hand, just due to importance of criminal responsibility of the head officials in state.

References

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