The misdemeanor court as an entity of opposition to domestic violence

Abstract

After the Law on Public Order and Peace in 2016 had been passed, a public space became a substance of the criminal offense referred to in this law. Given that violence in partner and family relationships most often occurs in a non-public area, misdemeanor courts have lost their previous role in protecting victims against certain forms of domestic violence that lack the characteristics of a criminal offense. However, misdemeanor courts have been assigned a new significant role through both the implementation of the Law on Prevention of Domestic Violence on 1 June 2017 and prescription of offenses set out in Article 36. They have become responsible for the prevention of domestic violence. In this paper, we will tackle certain segments of misdemeanor-legal protection of victims of domestic violence over the course of a five-year period with regards to the implementation of the aforementioned law. We believe that one of the goals of passing the law was to prevent all forms of domestic violence from the first moment of its occurrence, meaning that misdemeanor courts are an important entity in fulfilling this goal, primarily in the area of the implementation of urgent measures.