The Constitutional Development Of Croatia

The Constitutional Development Of Croatia Presented by: Prof. Dr. Čepulo Date: 27 September 2023 Austria-Hungary: Kingdoms of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia - Croatia-Slavonia - 9th c. Croatian Kingdom (Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia) → 1102-Lands of the Wholly Crown/Habsburg Empire: • Croatia-Slavonia autonomy Diet, the ban • nation-building (1830s): national integration (Dalmatia!) + self-government vs. Hungarian nation-building • - → conflict 1848 break-off of relations with Hungary → Croatian-Hungarian Settlement, 1868: shared jurisdiction 'common' (state): autonomous affairs • 'common' public finances, commerce, maritime legislation...; Diet (7 veto), government (Croatian Home Minister) • Autonomous - govt. & admin., education and religion, 'judiciary': organization, civil and criminal law 7 public finances • Diet; Home Government = the ban (King & Min. President) + administrative departments; Supreme Court (1862) - autonomous legislation Home Minister: objections → King: sanction • → 'state building': autonomous institutions (government)! ← blocked • → trialism (Monarchy) - Yugoslav state (Serbia and Montenegro) - (Croatian state) - State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (1918) - South-Slavic territories of AustroHungary, Zagreb • - provisory problems! unification with Serbia (Montenegro) Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1918-1941/1946) • Serbian prevalence in negotiations democratic legitimacy? → a posteriori • the nation state: single 'three-named nation' - 'Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian language' • enthusiasm vs. Serbian dominance + clash of political cultures and traditions (Greater Serbia vs. identities) • → Vidovdan constitution Serbian votes, strict centralism → Croatian tradition → assassination of Croatian deputies in the Parliament • → King's coup d'Etat radical unitarism: single Yugoslav nation! Constitution 1931 • - 'Croatian Question' Agreement, 1939 → Banate of Croatia, 1939-1941 Royal decree ('state of emergency') - provisory • 25% of the state territory - historical & ethnic criteria - compromise (provisory) autonomous jurisdiction, incl. public finances; Diet, Home Government = ban (King); Supreme Court autonomous legislation → King-pre-1918 models of government the ban! = 'nation-state'; - criticism of radical nationalists - → federalization of Yugoslavia? - → failure of the unitary (single-nation) concept as integrative concept - legitimacy issue Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) - Italy Ustaša movement puppet-state: Germany & Italy - totalitarian state embodiment of power: 'the Head'! + party-state (Ustaša & state structures) - single-party system Nazi-fascist Communist federation and federal Croatia (1943/1946-1991) - Beginnings • Communist Party: Yugoslavia Serbian hegemony federation of national 'peoples' republics (USSR) • Partisan movement (communist led): • - 1943 Antifascist Council of Peoples Liberation of Yugoslavia 'representative body of the Yugoslav lands' (pre-Parliament) • form of the state after the war + federation and democracy: right to selfdetermination and right to secession of the peoples of • Yugoslavia: Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians and Montenegrins → 1944individual federal republics as constituencies of federation - Antifascist Council of Peoples Liberation of Croatia (ACPLC) • → Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia, 1946 six republics, 1947-borders: federal and Communist Party leadership, 1945-1947 • Yugoslav federation: top → bottom democratic legitimacy? Right Of The People To Self-Determination And Secession And Sovereignty Of The Republics - right to self-determination and secession of each of the constituent nations (constitutions) → 'national' republics (≠ B. and H.) - Peoples Republic of Croatia, 1947: 'right to self-determination of the Croatian people' - shared sovereignty - federation: republics → sovereignty of the republics in federation reality: concentration of competencies in the federal center + 'party-state' - federal Constitution 1974-decentralisation! - transfer of competences to republics + equal representation of republics (= autonomous provinces) in federal bodies + consensus of republics and autonomous provinces in vital decisions - Croatian Constitution and legal system, 1974 - particularity and identity - inside federation Disintegration of Yugoslavia and Constitution of Republic of Croatia - 1980death of J. B. Tito Kosovo - Serbia; Slovenia: democratization & criticism - Croatia multi-party elections, April 1990-Croatian Democratic Union - revision of 1974 Constitution, August 1990 Constitution of Republic of Croatia, December 1990 ('Christmas Constitution') - fundaments: 'positive Croatian constitutional tradition' - incl. constitutional heritage of ACPLY and ACPLC (1943/44) i. e. federalism + 'return to the European tradition with consideration of the North-American tradition' • - NB.: 'positive tradition' totalitarian and authoritarian part of heritage 'historical' influences - minor but important: the preamble (forms of Croatian statehood and autonomy since 9th century) + re-formulation of definition of Croatia from 1974 Constitution: 'Republic of Croatia is the national state of the Croatian people and the state of members of nations and minorities living in it: Serbs, Muslims, Slovenes, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Hungarians, Jews and others...... providing equality... + Art. 1: '...power belongs to the people as the community of free and equal citizens... → Constitutional Court - organization of power: semi-presidential system (France): democracy & concentration of powers (conditions!) + already accepted in some CE countries + complementary to Croatian tradition (ban) bi-cameralism: House of Representatives + County House President Tudjman (US-Croat advisor) ← vs. Croatian advisors: against the Croatian traditions Italian model: damage control - abolished 2000 - Croatia: 'the sovereign state' ≠ independent; remaining within SFRY until its reorganization on the basis of the agreement of the republics (= confederation) or until other decision of the Croatian Parliament (→ - independence, in case of failure on agreement on confederation) provisions on the Croatian armed forces and foreign politics: enforcement delayed → vs. federal Constitution! avoiding the conflict Independence of Croatia - constitutional reflexes - Serbia and Montenegro vs. confederation! + Slovenia: independence → referendum, May 1991 ('umbrella question') - →25 June 1991, Constitutional Decision on the Proclamation of Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Croatia: 'right of the Croatian people to selfdetermination, including the right to dissociate and associate with other peoples and states' • ← SFRY acting as constitutionally unregulated state, gross violations of human and minority rights and rights of federal units, federal regulation does not provide for solution of the crisis, confederal solution neglected - ← NB. 'right to dissociate' instead of 'right to secession' - reasons = justification for remedial secession: international law ← right to self-determination beyond the state borders → dissolution & secession • the Constitutional Decision; accepted, but not enforced (← by the special proclamation of the Parliament): avoiding conflict with the Yugoslav Army → negotiations: disassociation as a procedure • yet effective: enforced Constitutional provisions on the Croatian armed forces and foreign politics + mutual recognitions with Slovenia and Lithuania - → intervention of Yugoslav Peoples Army in Slovenia - → Brioni Declaration, 8 July (EEC, fed. Presidency, fed. government, Yugoslav Army, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia) - three months moratorium on Slovenian and Croatian activities on independence → peace negotiations ≠ radicalization of Yugoslav Army & Serbian aggression - 8 October, Croatian Parliament: termination of all constitutional bonds with SFRY; the SFRY does not exist any longer, recognition of independence of other republics continuation of the process of determining mutual rights and obligations (disassociation) • → intensive legislation: Law on Croatian Citizenship, legal separation from SFRY...... - → independence - 25 June or 8 October? - symbolic? + legal consequences (war crimes!) • Supreme Court (2010), Constitutional Court (2015): 8 October • part of Croatian international lawyers: 25 June Constitutional revisions (amendments) 1997-2013 - EU's initiatives for regional associations • → December 1997: procedure for entering into associations with other countries + ban of entering Croatia into any association leading to renewal of a South Slavic Union or any form of the Balkan state - President Tudjman's authoritative style of government + Tudjman's death 1999 polls 2000: left-liberal govt.: → ban of PR's membership in political party + reduce of presidential powers: direct elections, participation in foreign politics + control of intelligence services (with president of government))  → semi-presidential parliamentary government - critics (S. Sokol): 'quarter-presidential system'  in practice: 'cohabitation' currently: conflicts!  revision? (previous initiatives - not accepted in public) • → extension of human and minority rights grants (22 minorities acknowledged by Constitution) • → bi-cameral system→ uni -cameral, 2001 - adoption to expected accession to NATO and EU, 2010 - popular referendum → marriage: union of a man and woman, 2013 reaction to leftliberal Govt. initiative Conclusion - modern Croatian constitutional tradition and the Croatian Constitution - Croatian constitutional experience 19-20 century (contradictory): constitutional identity in broader multi- cultural frameworks + tendency to constitute its own independent state - deeper lawyers of Croatian constitutionality: right to self-determination/nation building + association