ACTIVE BRIBERY IN CROATIAN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN LAW

Pisati o povijesti kažnjavanja znači promišljati, kritički preispitivati te bolje razumjeti suvremeni sustav kažnjavanja koji je rezultat dugoga povijesnog razvitka. Teško je odgovoriti u kojoj mjeri poimanje kažnjavanja, odnosno kazne i njezine svrhe, označava ili može označiti civilizacijsku razinu pojedinog društva. Sasvim je sigurno da se civilizacijski i kaznenopravni stav prema kazni izvodi iz niza pretpostavki: općih, kulturnih, socioloških, psiholoških, religijskih, političkih i drugih čimbenika koje valja sagledavati jedinstveno i u njihovoj povijesnoj dimenziji. Sam postanak kaznenog prava povezuje se s trenutkom ustrojavanja javne vlasti i države. Prema povijesnom kriteriju, razlikuju se antičko (starovjekovno), srednjovjekovno te suvremeno kazneno pravo, koja su međusobno isprepletena. U ovom radu daje se prikaz i razvoj kažnjavanja počinitelja aktivnog podmićivanja u hrvatskom srednjovjekovnom pravu.When it comes to writing about the history of punishment, it is always linked with critically re-thinking and better understanding of the contemporary system of punishment, as a result of its long historical development. In such a way, „contemporary criminal law cannot be seen as a result of an effort made by a certain nation or in a certain epoch“. „Permanently faced with social changes, in its long historical development, criminal law has been modifying its fundamental principles and categories, by building new institutes and instruments, in order to become less cruel and more human, but not less efficient than in earlier stages of its development, characterized by rudeness, cruelty and exemplarity of its sanctions. Although it is not easy to answer the question, if there is the measure, in which social understanding of punishment and its purpose, determines the civilizational level in the society, there is no doubt about the fact that civilizational and legal point of view towards punishment derives from a waste range of factors: general, cultural, sociological, psychological, religious, political and other factors that should be taken altogether in their historical dimension. The genesis of criminal law is linked with the moment of establishing the public authorities and the state. According to different criteria, it is possible to introduce different periodization of criminal law. When it comes to the historical criterion, there can be made a historical division into periods of ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary criminal law (punishment), which periods should not be taken as absolutely inseparable. The point of this paper is to present a review and development of punishing active bribery in the Croatian medieval and modern law