STATUTORY VAGUENESS AS FOUNDATION OF CREATIVE JURISRUDENCE: THE EXAMPLE OF SERBIA

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to make a contribution to the analysis of judicial creativity in Serbia. More precisely, the claim that is advocated is that adjudication in cases of vagueness necessarily involves law-making. The paper consists of six parts: The introductory part emphasizes the importance of this issue in modern jurisprudence. The second part deals with the analysis of statutory indeterminacies with the primary focus on vagueness. In the next part, I discuss two questions: (1) who is obliged to resolve the problem of statutory vagueness and (2) what are the ways through which Serbian courts perform the aforementioned activity. The fourth part lays down arguments that support my conclusion that the judicial process of resolving the problem of vagueness constitutes creative activity, while the fifth deals with possible objections against this claim. Finally, the sixth part explicates the very importance of the paper, as well as its clear limitations in terms of explanatory power.