Starting with 1944, the judiciary of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was created on the „revolutionary foundations“ of the new communist government, which was a highly unfavorable development for the Serbs, due to the federal policy of disintegration. Serbian judiciary was supposed to be federalized with the creation of independent Supreme Courts of Vojvodina, Kosovo and Metohija and even Sandžak. The principle of federalism, as „lawful expression of the equality of our nations“ was legally reflected in the fact that the Supreme Courts became highest instances of the judiciary in the republics, settling therefore both civil and criminal cases on appeal and having a final say in regard to the issues of the laws of the republics. From the times of the creation of the FPRY, Ministry of Law of Serbia, as well as the Supreme Court of Serbia, had a limited territorial jurisdiction, as territory of Vojvodina was out of reach of the Serbian judiciary. Federalized character of the judiciary was finalized with the constitutional amendments of 1971. In the new settlement of legal competencies between the federation and its republics and provinces, further decentralization was pursued in the area of lawmaking, as well as of the organization of judiciary. Federal judiciary was only able to monitor the execution of federal laws in some areas of common interests, whereas the judiciary as a whole was regulated by the republics and provinces. On the basis of these amendments, new Constitution of SFRY was promulgated in 1974, transferring permanently not only the competencies in organizing the judiciary, but also the competencies of „substantive regulation of special parts of the material criminal law“ to the level of republics. Hence SFRY entered a period of coexistence of nine criminal codes and nine laws on organization and jurisdiction of the judiciary.
