In misdemeanor law, imprisonment was known as one of the sanctions until 2005. After that year, with the adoption of the new Minor Offences Act, there was a change in misdemeanor legislation which led to the abolition of imprisonment. An essential novelty was the remand prison the (un) constitutionality of which was decided by the Constitutional Court only several years after its entry into force, although in theory dilemmas arose from the very beginning regarding the (un) constitutionality of this institute. Although the Constitutional Court did not completely close the door to remand prison, the legislator decided to abandon this institute altogether and reform the entire system for cases where the perpetrator does not pay the fine and costs of the proceedings within a set time limit. A fundamental novelty in the legislation was a new way of enforcing the unpaid and uncollectible fine by changing it into a alternative imprisonment, which is still known in the current regulations.
The Master's thesis thus illustrates the development of the role of deprivation of liberty in misdemeanor law, from imprisonment as one of the sanctions, to remand prison as a means coercion to pay a fine, to alternative imprisonment as a form of execution of unpaid and unenforceable fine. Two basic forms of deprivation of liberty during the proceedings themselves, which are intended for the conduct of the proceedings (detention and transfer), are also presented as constants in misdemeanor law.
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