Where Is the Limit? – The Question of Punishability in the Light of Constitutional Court Decisions

Abstract

The decisions of the Constitutional Court have been moulding the normative roles of substantive criminal law in the Criminal Code of 1978. What are these decisions and what kind of general conclusions can criminal legislators draw from them? What aspects of the framework of conditions of punitiveness and of the last resort role of criminal law can be recognized in the decisions of the Constitutional Court and how can the content of these decisions serve and support constitutional interests within criminal legislation and enforcement? Do the decrees set by the justices of the Constitutional Court extend the bastions of ethics of criminal jurisdiction or do they merely reinforce them? Can criminal policy be influenced by the opinion of this body? The study focuses on a group of decisions made by the Constitutional Court, which can give us guidelines to answer the above mentioned questions.