Statistical data: 1 May 1996 - 31 August 1996

• Cases concerning the conformity of laws with the Constitution:
received 42, resolved 27;
in 24 cases proposals to review the constitutionality of laws were not accepted, in 1 case the proposal was dismissed and in 2 cases the procedure was terminated.
• Cases concerning the conformity of other regulations with the Constitution and laws:
.received 23, resolved 14;
in 6 cases the proposals to review the constitutionality and legality of regulations were not accepted, in 7 cases the proposal was dismissed and in 1 case the procedure was terminated.
• Cases concerning the protection of constitutional rights:
received 207, resolved 121;
in 7 cases the constitutional action was accepted, in 69 cases rejected, in 35 cases dismissed, in 3 cases forwarded to other bodies, in 4 cases the procedure was terminated and in 3 cases the petitioners were instructed on the right to submit a constitutional action.
• Cases concerning jurisdictional disputes among legislative, executive and judicial branches:
received 2, resolved 2.
• Cases concerning supervision of the constitutionality of the programmes and activities of political parties:
received none, resolved 1.

• Cases concerning appeals to suspend temporarily the execution of individual acts based on a provision of law the constitutionality of which is under review or of acts disputed by constitutional action:
received 18, resolved 22;
   in 8 cases the claim to suspend was accepted, in 5 cases rejected, in 6 cases dismissed, and in 3 cases the petitioners were instructed on their rights.

Important decisions
Identification: CRO-96-2-010
a) Croatia / b) Constitutional Court/c)/d) 10.05.1996 / e) U-lll-260/1996 / f) / g) Narodne novine (Official Gazette), 38/1996, 1469-1472 / h).
Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Institutions - Executive bodies - Territorial administrative decentralisation - Municipalities.
Institutions-Executive bodies-Territorial administrative decentralisation - Supervision.
Keywords of the alphabetical index:
Budget, City / Local self-government / Municipal assembly, dismissal / Statement of reasons.
Headnotes:
The effective use of a legal remedy requires that a person who is entitled to lodge this remedy must know the reasons given for the disputed act.
Summary:
According to Article 81 of the Act on Local Self-government and Administration, the government can - on the proposal of the Ministry of Administration, and if one or more prerequisites listed in that legal provision exist -dismiss the representative body of the local self-government unit and appoint its commissioner to that unit, who holds the office until a new representative body is elected. In such a case the president of the dismissed representative body is entitled to submit a constitutional action.
The mentioned prerequisites, among others, are: if a representative body fails to pass the annual budget within a period set by law; if it repeatedly passes general acts contradicting the Constitution, laws or other regulations;
or because of repeated grave violations of the laws and other regulations.
The constitutional action was submitted by the President of the dismissed City of Zagreb Assembly.
The Court found that the disputed decision of the government did not state the reasons or sufficient reasons for the dismissal of the Assembly. The fact that the City of Zagreb 1996 Budget was adopted according to a procedure which was not in conformity with law - which fact later led to its repealment by the Constitutional Court's decision of 29 April 1996 - could not be interpreted to mean that the City of Zagreb 1996 Budget had not been adopted within the period of time specified by law.
The Court accepted the claim of the constitutional action, and repealed the decisions of the government by which the Assembly of the City of Zagreb was dismissed and the commissioner of the government appointed.
Supplementary information:
A dissenting opinion of one justice states that the City of Zagreb 1996 budget was passed in the period of time prescribed by the law, but since it was later repealed by the decision of the Constitutional Court, the conclusion to follow should be that the City of Zagreb Assembly had failed to pass its annual budget within a period set by the law; since this condition provided one of the legal grounds for the dismissal of the representative body by decision of the government, there were grounds for the government's decision.
Cross-references:
The City of Zagreb 1996 Budget was repealed by decision U-ll-204/1996 of 29 April 1996, published in Narodne novine, 33/1996.
Languages:
Croatian, English.
Identification: CRO-96-2-011
a) Croatia / b) Constitutional Court / с) / d) 12.06.1996 / e) U-l-200/1996 / f) / g) Narodne novine (Official Gazette), 51/1996, 2178 / h).
Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Institutions - Executive bodies - Territorial administrative decentralisation - Municipalities.
Keywords of the alphabetical index:
Boundaries, municipal / Local self-government.

Headnotes:
The constitutional right to local self-government does not include the right of a local unit to decide on its boundaries.
Summary:
A city council claimed a violation of its self-government rights arising from the law regulating territories of counties, cities and municipalities. The stated grounds of review were that the legal criteria for the determination of boundaries of municipalities failed to ensure that certain unities remained whole and complete and that they were not disrupted.
The disputed law prescribed that the boundaries of municipalities and cities should follow the borders of the cadastral communes or borders of settlements presented in the official register of spatial units. In cases when the borders are not completely determined, neighbouring local self-government units settle the boundaries by agreement, but if the agreement is not reached, the boundary shall be determined by the government on the proposal of the central State authority competent for matters concerning cadastral registers.
The Court rejected the claim of unconstitutionality.
Languages: Croatian

Identification: CRO-96-2-012
a) Croatia / b) Constitutional Court / c) / d) 26.06.1996 / e) U-l-321/1992 / f) / g) Narodne novine (Official Gazette), 54/1996, 2232-2234 / h).
Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Constitutional Justice - The subject of review - Laws and other rules having the force of law.
Institutions - Executive bodies - Application of laws.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights -Non-retrospective effect of law - Civil law.
Keywords of the alphabetical index:
Flats, privatisation / Social ownership.
Headnotes:
Since the privatisation of flats is regulated by a special law, the contracts concerning sale of socially-owned flats are governed by this lex specialis and not by general laws regulating contractual relations.
According to the Constitution, individual provisions of a law may have a retroactive effect.
Summary:
The Court dealt with proposals to review the constitutionality of provisions of a law regulating the sale of socially-owned flats which concerned the determination of the price of flats when paid for in instalments and the manner of subsequent alterations to that price by acts of government
The claim of unconstitutionality was not accepted.
Supplementary information:
By its ruling U-l-697/1995, also of 26 June 1996, the Court accepted 37 proposals to review the constitutionality of other provisions in the law regulating the sale of socially-owned flats, having found in connection with these provisions reasonable doubts concerning their conformity with the Constitution.
Languages: Croatian
Identification: CRO-96-2-013
a) Croatia / b) Constitutional Court / c) / d) 10.07.1996 / e) U-I274/1996 / g) Narodne novine (Official Gazette), 61/1996, 2877-2878 / h)

Keywords of the systematic thesaurus:
Institutions - Courts - Organisation - Prosecutors / State counsel.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Equality.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Freedom of opinion.
Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Freedom of expression.
Keywords of the alphabetical index:
Libel / Media, press, liability of a newspaper director.
Headnotes:
Although unlawful acts against a person's honour and reputation, among which is libel, are in general prosecuted by private actions of the persons concerned, there is no violation of the constitutionally guaranteed principle of equality if the Criminal Code prescribes a special procedure for criminal prosecutions in cases of libel undertaken ex officio by the Prosecutor General in order to protect the work or the position of persons who perform certain duties.
Summary:
According to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Croatia as amended in March 1996 (Narodne novine, 28/96), if libel are committed towards the President of the Republic of Croatia, or towards the presidents of the Sabor, the government, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court, in connection with their work or position, a criminal prosecution shall be undertaken ex officio by the Prosecutor General after obtaining the written consent of the persons concerned; this consent may be withdrawn at any time before the sentence becomes valid.
The Croatian journalists' Association proposed the review of the constitutionality of this provision on the grounds that it differentiated as between citizens according to their social position, that it limited freedom of opinion and that it had the affect of leading self-censorship.
The Court did not accept the claim of unconstitutionality. The opinion of the Court held that the Criminal Code protects all citizens under equal conditions in cases of libel and injury. This legal protection is not lessened or changed by the disputed provision, which rather prescribed the procedure for criminal prosecutions in connection with the work or position of persons listed in that provision.
Languages: Croatian