The political processes of most European countries today are dominated by one or more political parties. Political parties typically control two out of three branches of government: the legislative and the executive branch, leaving only the judiciary independent from their influence. Thus, political parties have become the centres of state power. Regardless of the type of government in which they operate, political parties have the formal duty to conform their activities with the law, while their material duty is to act for the citizen’s welfare. But what if political parties violate the law or act against the well-being of the people?

Aleksandar Marsavelski is an Assistant Professor in the Zagreb Law Faculty (Chair of Criminal Law). He graduated summa cum laude in 2008 from the University of Zagreb, where he received the Dean´s Award for Excellence and Rector´s Award for Best Paper. After graduation, he worked as junior assistant in the Ministry of Justice of Croatia, and then became a member of the Law Commission that drafted the Criminal Code of Croatia. Since 2010 he has taught at the University of Zagreb, and has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Croatian Unit of UNESCO Chair in Bioethics. In 2011 he was a member of the Law Commission that drafted the Law on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to Crimes of War Profiteering in Croatia. He was also one of the initiators of the Law on the Rights of Victims of Sexual Violence during the War in Croatia.