Summary

A general right to detain a criminal is the right provided to everyone by the legal order, the criteria of the emergence and limits of use of which can be derived from §217 (4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP). Under this provision, anyone may take a person who is apprehended in the act of committing a criminal offence or immediately thereafter in an attempt to escape to the police for detention as a suspect. By nature, this is an exceptional institute of criminal procedure law that grants every individual a possibility to be actively involved in commencing or securing a criminal procedure. Exercise of the right of detention results by nature always in restricting the freedom of another individual. Therefore, everyman’s right to detain also entails substantive law character: §217 (4) of the CCP precludes, as a procedural law fact, the unlawfulness of any acts having necessary elements committed during detention with regard to the offender.

This article addresses problems related to the right of detention and the criteria under which such a right is created. The author explains the situations when the right of detention arises, the subjects of the right, formal requirements applicable to detention, and related subjective conditions.