Amnesty and Pardon Under the Slovak Law and Their Unique Story (original) (raw)
Related papers
2018
This study provides a description of the constitutional framework, based on which the National Council of the Slovak Republic adopted the Resolution on the quashing of amnesties of 2017, and subsequently, analyses the key departure points and relevant constitutional arguments leading the Constitutional court to adopt the Finding no. PL. US 7/2017 that confirmed the Resolution of the National Council on the quashing of amnesties, granted in 1998 by former Prime Minister V. Meciar.
Transitional Justice Dynamics in Slovakia: From Silence to the Nation's Memory Institute
CEU Political Science Journal Vol.7, No. 4 (Dec. 2012)
The purpose of this article is to identify and explain the dynamics of transitional justice in Slovakia. Furthermore, it focuses on the Nation's Memory Institute and its role in the process of dealing with the past. The dynamics are explained through the existence of constraints -the type of the regime change, the nature of the Communist regime and elite configuration. Transition process in Slovakia can be divided into three distinct phases, in which the interplay of the constraints allows for the application of various transitional justice mechanisms. The main finding of the article is that throughout the existence of the independent Slovakia, the elite configuration was the variable which affected the process the most. Favorable elite configuration allowed for the establishment of the institute in 2002, which can be considered a "breaking of the silence" when it comes to dealing with the past in Slovakia.
Restorative Justice in the Conditions of the Slovak Republic
Cybercrime, Organized Crime, and Societal Responses, 2016
Nowadays, traditional criminal policy is facing its limits and is unable to cope with the rising criminality. Current criminal justice based on repressive approaches is unable to face serious obstacles and problems, namely in efficiency of punishment, poor protection of victims, and slow and overburdened criminal courts. New models of criminal judiciary based on principles of restorative justice have been unveiled while traditional systems of criminal justice are facing a serious crisis. The conception of restorative justice is one of the most modern and progressive of current approaches to criminal law that deserves to be implemented into the Slovakia criminal judiciary system. Author focused on punishments as home arrest, compulsory labour and financial penalty.
Collective Guilt in Central Europe after the Second World War and Now, ed. Iván Gyurcsík, 2024
The topic of the article is the role of the so-called Beneš Decrees in the formation of bilateral relations between Slovakia and Hungary, as well as between Slovakia and the members of the local Hungarian minority after 1993. In addition to traditional actors, such as, according to Rogers Brubaker, members of national minorities, their “external homeland” and the country in which they live, these relations are also influenced by integration processes and the action of international institutions, nowadays especially the EU. The EU’s current position is that it regards the resolution of past issues as an internal matter for its member states or for bilateral resolution between individual states. The article points to the fact that although the joint action of Slovakia and Hungary in the EU and in the Visegrád Group has long contributed to the diminishing relevance of controversial issues of the common past, it is the integration processes that may contribute to their re-escalation in the short term. The differentiated expectations of EU membership also affect the quality of bilateral relations of its member states. The relevance of research on post-1993 Slovak–Hungarian relations, based primarily on legal norms but also on statements by representatives of the political elites of both Slovakia and Hungary, has an increasing relevance in the context of the forthcoming further enlargement of the EU to include the states of Southeastern Europe and the former USSR.
The Value of Justice in Czechoslovak Criminal Law Norms in the 20th Century
2021
The authors focus on the legal regulation of criminal substantive law rules and its development in the 20th century in the territory of Czechoslovakia. Specifically, the paper focuses on finding the value of justice in the substantive law provisions and looking for its value in judicial practice. In the conclusion of the paper, the authors consider the meaning of justice in criminal law rules and compare its value in historical and current criminal codes. Justice is not legally defined as an institution or a principle, and therefore, it is very difficult to seek the value of justice in legal branches. The authors present a new hypothesis that works with all kinds of sources of law, which, in their interconnection and agreement, should provide a test to show the value of justice. The authors work with a specific type of criminal law – postwar retribution criminal law. However, the humanities are not exact as science, so subjective evaluations are always present. The second stage of v...
Executive Clemency: Comparative and Empirical Perspectives, 2020
Based on a comparative analysis of clemency laws and practices in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, this chapter examines what role amnesty and clemency laws have in striking a balance between justice and fairness in countries in political transition. Once part of a single legal system, the countries of the former Yugoslavia have developed independent legislative frameworks and practices related to amnesty and clemency as instruments of mercy in the hands of either legislative or executive government. In countries of the former Yugoslavia, executive clemency practice must be understood in the context of clemency’s relationship with the legislative amnesty power. Accordingly, the paper is structured in two parts: the first part, focusing on amnesty, outlines recent regional developments in amnesty legislation and practice, particularly in Croatia and FYR Macedonia regarding atrocity crimes. The paper identifies Macedonia’s 2002 Amnesty Law, applicable to all International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ‘11bis cases’, as a concerning example in the fight against impunity for atrocity crimes. By comparison, within Croatian law and practice, as evidenced by the 2014 case of Marguš v. Croatia before the European Court of Human Rights, the importance of criminal proceedings and sentencing enforcement has outweighed earlier amnesty schemes. The chapter’s second part provides an overview of regional executive clemency laws and practices, focusing on substantive and procedural requirements for pardon within the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The second part concludes that pardon, as an executive prerogative power, is afforded a wide legal margin of appreciation, thus resulting in divergent practices across national borders and even within federal jurisdictions in the former Yugoslavia. Moreover, executive clemency practice bears close relation to amnesty practice: those nations that make greatest use of the amnesty provision make little use of clemency, and vice-versa.
Post-War Retributive Jurisdiction in Slovakia
Evropejskij Issledovatelʹ, 2013
This paper provides an overview of the history of political bases and political party struggle for the realization of the postwar jurisdiction against war criminals and Nazi collaborators in Slovakia. While Slovak democrats tried to judge their war rivals strictly but equitably, communists wanted to judge all real or potential political opponents connected with the war regime. Because the moderate democrats had more influence, results of the Slovak retribution was not so harsh.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
Amnesty is one of the manners of extinguishing penalties, respectively the creation of legal situations which impede the criminal prosecution as well as imposition and application of punishments against perpetrators of criminal offences. Amnesty is addressed by law. This Law as any other law is issued by state parliament. In fact through amnesty unassigned persons listed by name are granted exemption from complete or partial prosecution, exemption from the execution of a punishment, the substitution of punishment with a less severe punishment or a suspended sentence or the expunging of punishment, respectively shall be abrogated certain consequences of the punishment. Amnesty is an old institution of criminal law. It is known in Roman and Middle Ages Law. Also contemporary criminal laws recognize amnesty as a criminal-law tool which precludes the imposition of punishment, or the imposed punishment shall be abrogated as whole or partially. In Kosovo the amnesty issue has been regulated by Law on Amnesty which entered into force on July 26, 2013. Amnesty manifests a range of characteristics and its existence and granting is determined by numerous reasons. For granting amnesty is conducted a special procedure. Such procedure shall be initiated according to official duty (ex-officio) and by the initiative (request) of the convicted person, the perpetrator of the criminal offence, state prosecutor and other persons which may file a complaint against the judicial decision. Concerning this institution, proceedings concrete actions have been granted also to Probation Service. Amnesty shall be granted for all criminal offences despite of their gravity. In this short scientific paper is dealt with the meaning, characteristics, importance and the procedure of amnesty implementation, as well as some of the other basic issues of theory-practice nature referring to this criminallaw institution. By preparing this article I have used historical-legal, comparative, dogmatic, statistical methods etc.
Annual Report on Slovak Legal History 2015
Krakowskie Studia z Historii Państwa i Prawa, 2016
The purpose of this report is to elaborate on the signifi cant events that enriched Slovak legal history during the year 2015. The work focuses mainly on academic degrees awarded in the fi eld of legal history including Roman law, further it provides information about the conferences organized in Slovakia and fi nally, this report refl ects important publications that contributed to the scholarship of Slovak legal history during the year 2015.
The Lasting Impact of the Beneš Decrees in Slovakia
Collective Guilt in Central Europe after the Second World War and Now, 2024
The Beneš Decrees, laws punishing the German and Hungarian communities of Czechoslovakia after the Second World War, are usually described as a historical phenomenon. This article shows that recently they have become a current legal issue after Slovak authorities have started applying the decree on confiscating property against current owners of property in Slovakia. There are several legal avenues for how confiscations can currently take place. The most famous example was exposed by the case of Bosits v. Slovakia, decided by the European Court of Human Rights in 2020. However, some other forms are more frequent and less transparent. Not only are these procedures contrary to Slovak law, but they are also taking place in a very different legal context compared to the postwar era. Slovakia as a member of the European Union is bound by the EU Treaties, and is a signatory to human rights treaties that protect the right to property and freedom from discrimination. Confiscations on the basis of ethnicity, applying the principle of collective guilt, constitute a severe violation of these norms. The Beneš Decrees affect the present not only through confiscations; they serve as the ideological basis for the current relationship between the majority and minorities in Slovakia. To overcome them, the first step should be quantifying the problems they have caused, to be able to offer specific suggestions on how these could be remedied.