SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF JUVENILE PENAL LEGISLATURE IN SERBIA, CROATIA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND MONTENEGRO

Abstract

Under the pressure of EU, but also their own efforts to join the Union, countries from Balkans, and former members of SFR Yugoslavia, have been trying, each in its own way, to reach that aim, and doing so, intentionally or inadvertently used the same sources for their own legislatures. Being so, in the end, juvenile penal legislatures have been organized in the same or similar manner in all Balkans countries, not just because of the identical issues that needed to be worked out, but also because of the popular idea that anything coming from Germany or Austria is “the best for us”. Nevertheless, to conceal the use of this legal transplant, each country added something of its own, and for that reason, there are some differences, but they are merely terminological or “cosmetic”. These terminological differences, however, have their practical consequences.