THE POSITION OF JUVENILES IN THE NEW CRIMINAL LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

The new juvenile (substantive, procedural and executive) criminal law came into force at the beginning of 2006 in the Republic of Serbia.. In this way, by concluding its reform of criminal law, the Republic of Serbia followed the trends of modern criminal policies of other developed European countries (France, Germany, and Croatia). Therefore, in that special, specifi c way, it determined the criminal legal status of juveniles. That specifi city is refl ected in various directions : 1) Lex specialis was brought in – a special Act on juvenile perpetrators of criminal acts and the criminal legal protection of juveniles when juveniles in their criminal legal position are completely separate from the status of adults as perpetrators of criminal acts, 2) the special authority of district courts is determined for taking action in criminal cases of juvenile perpetrators of criminal acts, 3) compulsory specialisation is provided for persons in the criminal judiciary taking part in criminal proceedings for juvenile perpetrators of criminal acts ( with previous training and issuing of licences ‘certifi cates’ and 4) besides criminal sanctions, the law has provided for juvenile perpetrators of criminal acts the possibility of sentencing specifi c measures sui generis – educational orders ( directions or recommendations) – as means of restorative justice by which the commencement or carrying out of legal action is avoided. This paper precisely deals with this new criminal legal position of juvenile perpetrators of criminal acts and with the new institutions of restorative justice from theoretical, practical and comparative legal aspects