This Criminal Code of the Republic of Croatia sets the basic rules and provisions as regards the persecution and related penalty provisions as regards the crimes and offenses committed on the national territory. Criminal offenses and criminal sanctions shall be prescribed only for acts threatening or violating personal liberties and human rights, as well as other rights and social values guaranteed and protected by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and international law in such a manner that their protection could not be realized without criminal law enforcement. The prescribing of specific criminal offenses, as well as the types and the range of criminal sanctions against their perpetrators, shall be based upon the necessity for criminal law enforcement and its proportionality with the degree and nature of the danger against personal liberties, human rights and other social values.
The text is divided into twenty-seven main thematic Chapters and a total of 391 articles. Titles of these Chapters are as follows: I. Basic provisions; II. Applicability of the criminal legislation of the Republic of Croatia; III. Criminal offenses; IV. Culpability; V. Punishment and sentencing; VI. Non-custodial measures; VII. Security measures; VIII. Confiscation of pecuniary gain, public announcement of judgment, legal consequences of conviction, rehabilitation, amnesty and pardon; IX. The meaning of the terms used in this code; X. Criminal offences against life and limb; XI. Criminal offences against the freedoms and rights of man and citizen; XII. Criminal offenses against the Republic of Croatia; XIII. Criminal offenses against values protected by International Law; XIV. Criminal offenses against sexual freedom and sexual morality; XV. Criminal offenses against honor and reputation; XVI. Criminal offenses against marriage, family and youth; XVII. Criminal offenses against property; XVIII. Criminal offenses against people's health (including transmission of contagious diseases); XIX. Criminal offenses against the environment; XX. Criminal offenses against the public safety of persons and property and safety in traffic; XXI. Criminal offenses against the safety of payment and business operations; XXII. Criminal offenses against the judiciary; XXIII. Criminal offenses against authenticity of documents; XXIV. Criminal offenses against public order; XXV. Criminal offenses against official duty; XXVI. Criminal offenses against the armed forces of the Republic of Croatia; and XXVII. Transitory and closing provisions.
Criminal offenses and criminal sanctions may be prescribed only by statute. No one shall be punished, and no criminal sanction shall be applied, for conduct which did not constitute a criminal offense under a statute or international law at the time it was committed and for which the type and range of punishment by which the perpetrator can be punished has not been prescribed by statute. The law in force at the time the criminal offense is committed shall be applied against the perpetrator. If, after the criminal offense is committed, the law changes one or more times, the law that is more lenient to the perpetrator shall be applied. Criminal sanctions which may be prescribed by statute and applied against the perpetrator are: punishments, non-custodial sanctions (judicial admonition and suspended sentences), security measures and educational measures. The duration of any type of criminal sanction shall be determined by statute and no criminal sanction shall be prescribed, pronounced or applied for an indefinite time. The general purpose of prescribing, pronouncing or applying criminal sanctions is that all citizens honor the legal system and that no one commits a criminal offense, and that perpetrators of criminal offenses do not continue acting in a similar way in the future. Criminal Proceedings for criminal offenses shall be instituted by the State Attorney’s Office on his own motion in the interest of the Republic of Croatia and all its citizens. Exceptionally, for certain criminal offenses, it may be prescribed by statute that criminal proceedings shall be instituted by a private charge, or that the State Attorney’s Office shall institute criminal proceedings following a motion.
Chapter nineteen (XIX) sets detailed provisions for criminal offenses against the environment, including environmental pollution, noise pollution, waste (also radioactive of dangerous substances) related pollution and bad practices, transmission of contagious diseases among animals and plants, production of harmful drugs for animals, veterinary malpractice, poaching game and fish, torturing animals, devastation of forests, unlawful exploitation of mineral resources. The first article of this Chapter (article 250) declares that whoever, contrary to regulations, pollutes the air, soil, running, still or ground water, watercourses or the sea, sea bed or subsoil or in some other way imperils the quality of air, soil, water, watercourses or the sea, sea bed or subsoil or the natural genetic harmony of biological diversity within a wide area and to an extent which can worsen the conditions of life of humans or animals, or endanger the existence of forests, plants and other vegetation, shall be punished by imprisonment for three months to five years.