DELIMITATION AND DEMARCATION OF THE EXTERNAL BOUNDARIES OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

Daje se sumaran prikaz delimitacije i demarkacije granica Hrvatske sa svim njezinim susjedima s preporukom da se taj odgovoran posao ne zanemari. Postignuti privremeni ili nerealizirani sporazumi ocjenjuju se temeljem pravilâ kodificiranih u Bečkoj konvenciji o pravu ugovora iz 1969. godine. Ali valja voditi računa i o drugim međunarodnim obvezama poput one iz Beogradske dunavske konvencije iz 1948. i prava fizičkih i pravnih osoba na uživanje njihovih nekretnina koje se nađu na drugoj strani granice.The final demarcation of frontiers between the successor States of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is a painstaking job faced with many obstacles. The present article deals in particular with external boundaries of Croatia. The demarcation of the entire frontier has so far been accomplished only in respect to the boundaries with Hungary and that in the application of the 1920 Trianon Peace Treaty, the party of which was the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In respect to land and maritime frontiers with Slovenia, after the written and oral procedures have been accomplished, the rendering of the arbitral award is expected in the near future. The negotiations with Serbia are in progress. The Treaty on Boundaries between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia was signed in 1999 by the two Presidents, but it has never been ratified in Parliaments of the two contracting States. Since then, it has been provisionally applied without interruption for fifteen years. In 2002 Croatia and the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) concluded a Protocol on the Interim Regime along the Southern Border, which Montenegro succeeded after it had proclaimed its independence in 2006. This article deals especially with the provisional application of treaties in general and with the impact of unilateral acts of the termination of agreements on boundaries, boundary regimes and other territorial regimes, when their provisions provide for that option. The author stresses the importance of the freedom of navigation of merchant ships of all flags on the Danube River according to Article 1 of the 1948 Belgrade Danube Convention, and the right of natural and juridical persons to the peaceful enjoyment of their immovable properties that happen to be allocated on the other side of the frontier