Minor offenses law has become a very important, complex and demanding part of criminal law in the Republic of Slovenia. Because the legislation is a "living matter", trying to adapt to the current situation and trying to remedy the shortcomings that occurred during the implementation of the law in practice, Minor Offences Act has been amended and supplemented several times in the past.
The latest amendment to Minor Offences Act - 1 was adopted and implemented by the legislator in 2016, which brought about many changes in the work of bodies that lead and decide in the proceedings on minor offences. The intention of the legislator was to simplify and shorten minor offences proceedings conducted by authorities, while respecting high standards of protection of human rights and freedoms as well as the legal protection of all participants.
More than 3 years have passed since the last amendment to the Minor Offences Act - 1, therefore I carried out a research in my master's thesis on whether or not the amendments to the statutory provisions have had a positive impact on the work of the minor offences authorities and thus achieved their purpose.
The research was carried out by means of the study of the existing literature, analysis of statistics, and a questionnaire.
The research confirmed all three hypotheses, which led to the conclusion that the amendments to the Minor Offences Act - 1 have had a positive impact on the work of the minor offences authorities, and contributed to more efficient and faster resolution of cases.
The research concluded that, despite the positive changes, the law on minor offenses is still not optimally regulated. In the future, the legislation should be further amended in order to remedy the problems identified during its implementation.
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