The legal status of mentally ill perpetrators of unlawful acts in the Republic of Croatia

The paper is concerned with the legal status of mentally incompetent persons who have committed an unlawful act. The latter has become especially relevant due to the activity of the legislator in the recent years. The criminal status of mentally incompetent persons in the Republic of Croatia is regulated by the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Act. Therefore, after the introductory remarks, the author analyzes the provisions of these acts paying special attention to the concept of culpability adopted in the Criminal Code of 2011 and to the revisions and amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act of 2012 and 2013, which directly influence the legal status of these persons. Since the legislative rules, which are in force as of 1998, redirect mentally incompetent persons after the termination of criminal procedure from the criminal into the civil system, their legal status is also related to the provisions of the Act on the Protection of Persons with Mental Disorders. These provisions are analyzed in the last part of the paper paying special attention to the solutions introduced by the new Act on the Protection of Persons with Mental Disorders, which came into force on 1 January 2015. The new Act, according to authors’ opinion, has significantly improved the legal status of mentally incompetent persons