Retroactive Application of Criminal Code – Key Issue of Judicial Practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The paper analyses very complex, both from theoretical and practical point of view, issue of retroactiveness in criminal law. In this sense, the authors provide comparative overview of ways of determining the principle of legality in international law, especially referring to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949), European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (EKLJP, Convention, 1950). The paper provides special chronological overview of legal determination of the principle of legality and retroactive application of laws in general and analyses in depth the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia.