Criminal Acts of Terrorism in Criminal Legislation of Bosnia-Herzegovina's Brčko District

Abstract

The problematic of legal protection of Bosnia-Herzegovina and its Breko District from acts by which thetr integrity, constitutional order and safety are jeopardized is outlined in this work in light of the Breko District’s Criminal Law. The order in which specific criminal acts have been classified tn the legislation is followed in this work.

Accordingly, an overview of the anti-terrorist legislation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is given in the introduction, as well as an overview of the positions of the Organization of the United Nations and provisions from the final Anti Terrorist Convention applying to both national and international cases. The second part of this work is dedicated to the issue of criminal acts of terrorism as provisioned by the internal law (terrorism as in article 140, and penal measures for activities on preparing the criminal act of terrorism as in article 145 of the Criminal Law of the Breko District).

In the second part of the work criminal acts from the international law are also studied (international terrorism as in article 162, jeopardy to persons under international protection as in article 163 and hostage taking defined by article 142 of Breko’s Criminal Law). A critical review of criminal acts of terrorism in national and international law is also given as defined in chapter XXVIII of the Breko District’s Criminal Law, including hijacking of airplanes or ships (article 331) and threats to safety of air flights (article 332). As for the above criminal acts, the most interesting issues include their definition, their target, legal elements etc. As for the criminal act of terrorism from article 140, the problem is related to more severe qualified forms of the basic criminal act and other included criminal acts.

The author’s key conclusion results from the analyses of the studied problems. He concludes that the fight against terrorism is not only a right but also an obligation of states who are obliged to provide peaceful life to their populations. The author judges that the Breko District’s law has been drafted by professionals who are well aquatinted with this legal problem and that a lot of effort has been invested into drafting it. There existed no criminal or political reasons for not accepting similar solutions in this law to those from the criminal laws of the Federation of Bosnia- Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska.