POLITICAL OFFENSE AND THE SHAPE OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM. REFLECTIONS ON THE MIXED THEORY, PREPONDERANCE AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. PART 2

In the internal law of particular countries the fundamental division presented in the previous reflections with respect to offenses having a political provenance was based on the subject and subject matter approach. As it was stated a political offense may be correlated with the subject matter approach, and therefore, the criterion is based on the attacked legal interest, which is in a certain way protected. This interest is: the system of the country, its organs, sovereignty in relations with other international subjects, etc. The criterion can also include the subject approach, and therefore whether an act has a political status if the perpetrator acted from political motives. Finally, the act may be regarded as political, on the basis of a mixed criterion (subject and subject matter), which in turn leads to a substantial elimination of behaviors that meet the ‘double condition’. This theory has its principal positive attributes since, first and foremost, it limits the number of offenses that could be considered political, primarily by the need to fulfill during ‘the process of committing a crime by the offender’ circumstances arising from the subject and subject matter theory. Thus, under this theory, the conditions resulting from the two earlier mentioned theories must be satisfied, and only then, the act can be regarded as a political offense. Aside from the subject, subject matter and mixed theories, the so called theory of preponderance was created in international law. It is characterized by a kind of balancing of individual acts of a criminal nature and attributing a political or criminal provenance to these acts. In the twenty-first century, except for those types of offenses of a political nature, the idea of civil disobedience as a form of social expression and at the same time a form of a political offense has gained importance. In this case, it may be correlated with the activity of social groups of different shape, whose aim is to achieve particular goals, often related to political activities.

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