期刊名称：Collected Papers of the Law Faculty of the University of Rijeka
印刷版ISSN：1330-349X
电子版ISSN：1846-8314
出版年度：2017
卷号：38
期号：2
页码：779-798
语种：Croatian
出版社：Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci
摘要：In this paper, the author considers the issue of applying the legal concept of self-defense in the criminal offense of cruelty to animals. Starting from the legal definition of self-defense, the author raises the issue of its interpretation in the area referring to the defense of others (repelling an attack attempted by another). In particular, the author strives to address the central, but also the most controversial issue of whether the coinciding illicit attack can be repelled by an animal or whether life and physical integrity of an animal are legal goods that can be protected by means of self-defense. The author briefly analyzes the issue of legal subjectivity and objectivity of animals as well. Acknowledging the Croatian and the US jurisprudence (which jurisprudence, unlike the Croatian case law, does not consider cruelty to animals as a novelty), the author hypothetically evokes the issues that might occur before the Croatian judicial system, and how they could and should be resolved by Croatian courts. In terms of comparative law, the paper also examines the attitudes towards the use of self-defense in this type of criminal offense in German legal references. The ultimate goal of the paper is to develop a mechanism that will not discourage animal helpers, within the limits of self-defense, that is the defense of others, to prevent cruelty to an animal being, which animal being, as a part of the environment protected under the Croatian Criminal Code, is a protected legal good, and to enable an animal being to have the right to life and physical integrity (guaranteed in accordance with the principles of natural law).
关键词：self-defense; defense of others; defense of necessity; animal; Criminal Code
