AN ASSESSMENT ON THE POWER-LIMITING FUNCTION OF CRIMINAL LAW

The purpose of this article is to find out specifically,\rwhether criminal law has a function of limitation when it comes to\rpublic authority (government), and if so, how and with what kind of\rmechanisms this function of criminal law could be used effectively\rin a state which is run by rule of law. Criminal law concentrates itself to regulate and sanction a specific act and/or omission of individuals. Unlike constitutional law, criminal law does not construct\rsome law mechanisms to ensure the separation of power and to\rregulate how legislative, executive and judicative organs operate. For this reason, criminal law does not have the function of limitation\rregarding public authorities, especially the government. This holds\rtrue even though there are some recent publications which analyse\rthe function of criminal law by limiting the power of government\rand/or state. Some authors concluded that criminal law does have\rsuch functions to limit the state power while others were contradictory with their undeniable arguments. This article aims to outline\rand analyse the current discussions about this topic.