Analysis of Legal Powers of Municipal Wardens they Possess to Ensure Safety At the Local Level

Abstract

In Slovenia, the Municipal Warden Services Act (ZORed, 2006, and ZORed-A, 2017) represents the framework organisational legal act regulating the field of work of municipal wardens. In addition to the above act, the field of work and tasks performed by municipal wardens are also regulated by other laws and by-laws. Legal regulations enable and allow authorised persons of municipal warden services to use repressive powers in ensuring security. The article thus presents the security powers of municipal wardens from the point of view of the applicable Slovenian legal order. The article is a scientific review based on grammatical and dogmatic interpretation of applicable legal regulations and selected decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, and on an analytical method of the review of the Slovenian legislation in the field in question. The legal methods used by the author also include a synthetic method of comparing the legislation from the underlying Municipal Warden Services Act (ZORed, 2006) and its main amendments set out in the ZORed-A (2017). The paper is a comprehensive review of measures that municipal wardens may use to ensure safety at the local level. The author lists the relevant scientific and professional literature and argues about polemic issues with other prominent Slovenian authors. In Slovenia, laws are being amended, giving more and more powers to municipal wardens. The conceptual changes introduced by the ZORed-A (2017) have resolved some ambiguities, such as the addition/amendment of articles relating to the conditions for performing municipal warden tasks and supervision over their use, but a comprehensive and systematic amendment of municipal warden services legislation would nevertheless be useful.