Apparent joinder of criminal offenses in the Criminal law of Serbia

Abstract

Apparent joinder of criminal offenses is a legal institute which deviates from the actual or real joinder. It deals with legal situations where one or more criminal acts constitute the substance of several criminal offenses but, for legal and technical reasons, only one criminal offense is considered to have been committed. Following the division of a joinder into ideal and real, where one or several acts of criminal offenses have been taken as a criterion, the apparent joinder is also divided into ideal and real. This practically means that the offender had committed one criminal offense with one criminal act (an apparent ideal joinder) or several acts (an apparent real joinder), regardless whether his/her act or acts constitute the substance of several criminal offenses. Considering the fact that a legal institution of apparent joinder includes an entire catalogue of various legal situations, our legislator stipulates several forms of the apparent ideal as well as the apparent real joinder. They contain modalities of actions constituting the substance of several various criminal offenses. In a criminal theory, the issue of the apparent ideal joinder has occupied the attention of a large number of authors. They have shown an interest in expanding the catalogue of legally defined forms of the apparent joinder of criminal offenses. As a consequence, we have a significantly higher number of forms of the apparent joinder in comparison with the legal framework being used to regulate this institution in our criminal legislature. Therefore, apart from a legal designation, it is necessary to indicate a theoretical designation of both the apparent ideal and apparent real joinders of criminal offenses.