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Yugoslavia Court System
Yugoslavia had two national court systems, one for resolution
of civil and criminal cases, the second to judge the conformity
of national law with the Constitution and the conformity of laws
passed by republics and provinces with national law. In 1990 the
federal constitutional court found recent amendments to the
constitutions of all the republics except Montenegro to be at
variance with the federal Constitution. The court did not have
the authority, however, to take action against such infractions.
Its judgments were passed to the Federal Assembly for action. The
federal constitutional court also resolved disputes of authority
between regional bodies or between a regional body and the
national government, but it did not act as an appeals court for
the regional level. The republics and provinces also had
constitutional courts, which dealt with constitutional questions
on their level. For national uniformity, the members of the
regional courts held regular consultations on procedures and
constitutional interpretations.
The regular court system consisted of the federal,
republican, and provincial supreme courts, and local (commune)
courts, each resolving civil and criminal cases involving laws at
their level of government. Local regular courts included
untrained citizens elected by their communes, as well as
professional jurists. This provision partially fulfilled the
function of trial by jury, which did not exist. The Yugoslav
system also had no habeas corpus law. Only professional judges
served on the regular courts of the republics and the federal
Supreme Court. The system also included local- to federal-level
self-management courts (courts of associated labor), which heard
only cases involving acts of the self-management organizations,
not involving government law. The military courts completed the
Yugoslav justice system
(see
Courts, Detention, and Punishment
, ch. 5).
Each republic and province had its own law code, separate
from the Criminal Code of the Socialist Federaled Republic of
Yugoslavia. By federal law, political crimes were first tried at
district level, then cases could be appealed at the republic and
federal levels of the regular court system. The federal Supreme
Court was the final court of appeal for lower courts of all
types. The chief civil law enforcement officer was the public
prosecutor, elected by the Federal Assembly. The republics and
provinces had corresponding officers, similarly elected and under
the direction of the federal prosecutor.
Data as of December 1990
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