Historical and legal aspects of punishing physical entities in Serbia from 1804 to 1945

The paper explains the historical and legal development of criminal sanctions on the territory of today's Republic of Serbia. The paper deals with the research of criminal sanctions and their effects in the Principality of Serbia, the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The analysis of criminal sanctions in the paper was performed on the basis of the oldest legal monuments, both in our country and beyond. In this way, a systematic and thorough analysis of historical characteristics and opportunities leads to a complete understanding of today's knowledge regarding criminal sanctions, their types, their application and purpose. Observing the differences between the former way of punishment and today's way of resocialization of people enables a detailed analysis of the efficiency or inefficiency of more rigid criminal sanctions. By sublimating the basic criminal sanctions and their various forms throughout history, we strive to eliminate all illogicalities, ambiguities and dilemmas regarding this topic in criminal legislation of Serbia.