CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA: EXPERIENCES AND PROSPECTS

Autor razmatra položaj Ustavnog suda u svjetlu aktualnog prijedloga Ustavnog zakona o izmjenama i dopunama Ustavnog zakona o Ustavnom sudu. Ovim bi se prijedlogom zakona promijenile neke ovlasti Ustavnog suda. U kratkom povijesnom prikazu autor pokazuje da hrvatski narod pripada europskom civilizacijskom krugu što dokazuju brojni dokumenti i statuti kojima je uređivana vladavina prava u Hrvatskoj. Prema hrvatskom Ustavu, Ustavni sud ima posebno mjesto. Naime, Ustavni je sud izvan sustava diobe vlasti na zakonodavnu, izvršnu i sudbenu vlast. On je tako posebna ustavna kategorija, kojom se ne mogu baviti zakoni jer se ona bavi zakonima. U nastavku se navode promjene u nadležnostima i djelovanju suda koje donosi, ili bi trebao donijeti prijedlog novog Ustavnog zakona. Autor zaključuje da je ustavno sudstvo u samoj srži zapadne demokracije i da čuva Ustav koji je živa forma koja se stalno razvija.The author looks into the position of the Constitutional Court in the light of the proposed Constitutional Law on amendments and modifications of the Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Court which would change some powers of the Constitutional Court. A short historical review shows that the Croatian people belong to the European civilisational setting, as evidenced by numerous documents and statutes that have regulated the rule of law in Croatia. According to the Croatian Constitution, the Constitutional Court is assigned a special place. Namely, the Constitutional Court is outside the system of the division of power into the legislative, the executive and the judiciary; it is a special constitutional category that cannot be under the scrutiny of law since it scrutinizes laws. The author goes on to enumerate the changes in the jurisdiction and the operation of the Court envisaged in this new proposal of the Constitutional Law. The author concludes that constitutional courts are the very core of western democracy and that they protect constitutions as a constantly developing living form