Abstract

The paper deals with the offensiveness principle of the crime both as a constitutional principle and therefore as a parameter of constitutionality in judging the laws, and as a criterion that common judges are “authorizedµ to use by the Constitutional Court to the extent that this criterion in decisions that declare unfounded the issues of constitutionality raised for the violation of the principle of offensiveness in the abstract. The criterion, as referred to in these decisions, assumes the role of an application/evaluation criterion, while in the decisions of groundlessness of issues of constitutionality for the violation of the principle of determinacy of criminal offenses, the criterion in question is referred to as an interpretative criterion. This splitting of the offensiveness principle raises various perplexities that the paper analyzes.