Ecclesiastical crimes and penalties in the Constitution of the Serbian Ortodox Church

Abstract

In this paper, the author analyzes ecclesiastical penalties, according to the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) of 1947. This is the highest legal act of the SPC which contains, besides the provisions that regulate the rules of church life and the authority of certain bodies of the SPC, a number of provisions related to offenses (guilt) and sanctions for unlawful acts. In addition to the offenses and system of ecclesiastical criminal sanctions, the paper also points to the jurisdiction of church courts in pronouncing ecclesiastical sentences. Church impunity and punishment are presented, in accordance with the system of the Constitution of the SPC. The penalties vary depending on whether they can be given to priests or believers because the purpose of punishment is different from those of the two categories of Church members. Wherever necessary, the similarities and differences are pointed out between the criminal law provisions in Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the criminal law of the Republic of Serbia, as well as development of ecclestiastical crimes and penalties from first cannons, Dušan's Code to nowdays. The aim of this paper is to point out to both scholarly and expert public, and believers, who are most often lay people, this part of the church right, which, according to the author, is unjustly neglected in this kind of papers.