PLEDOAJE ZA BRISANJE ZAKONSKE ODREDBE O SASTOJCIMA KRIVNJE

The paper examines the theoretical coherence and practical expediency of the legal provision on the components of culpability. In this respect, in the introduction the author refers to various ways of systematising the notion of criminal offence, and briefly describes changes in the understanding of wrongful act and culpability in the classical, neoclassical and finalist school in terms of the criminal offence. The paper then analyses the genesis, theoretical meaning and practical significance of the material (teleological) model of differentiation between wrongful act and culpability, the full transposition of which into Croatian criminal law is prevented precisely by the provision on the elements of culpability. The material model of differentiation between wrongful act and culpability is observed through the prism of differentiation between justification and exculpation as a legal and ethical postulate, in order to single out the practical advantages of the model, primarily from the perspective of the dualistic system of criminal-legal sanctions. In the final part of the paper, the author critically assesses contradictions in Croatian criminal law resulting from an uneven relationship between the dualist system of sanctions and the formal model of criminal offences that still regards intent as an element of culpability. Two possible ways of changing the existing legislation are analysed: crossing over to the monist system of sanctions, and deleting the provisions on elements of culpability. The author regards the latter as more probable and nomotechnically more implementable.