Review article
Attainment of international legal status on the part of the Republic of Croatia (25th june 1991)
Davorin Rudolf
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Splitu
Abstract
The emergence of the Republic of Croatia as a subject of the international law cannot be considered exclusively in the context of its international recognition. Croatia emerged as an international law subject upon proclamation of its own independence and, thus, as all sovereign states, attained all rights and duties with regard to its territory. The attainment of both the sovereignty and international status on the Croatian part can, therefore, be considered in the context of the efficiency of the exercise of the sovereign state authority.
In the author's view, the Republic of Croatia emerged as the subject of the international law on 25th June 1991, following the enactment of the constitution acts on sovereignty and autonomy, implicit independence, which resulted directly from factual efficiency of the sovereign state authority.
Having signed the Brijuni agreement on 7th July 1991, the President of the Republic of Croatia assumed the international obligation to defer the enactment of constitution acts for a period of three months. The Croatian Parliament, however, never ratified the agreement, although the decision concerning ratification was within its exclusive jurisdiction.
This very act of not ratifying the agreement actually represents the conflict between the international legal obligation and internal law. The text writer believe that the very enactment of the agreement was indeed deferred, thus giving preference to the international law.
The constitution acts that were passed on 25th June 1991 remained in force notwithstanding the Brijuni declaration. There are two different theories on the effects that the declaration had on the international legal status of Croatia. According to the first one, Croatia lost its international status or, in other words, ceased to be the subject of the international law: the effect of the constitution acts was, thus, annulled. Croatia once again regained its previous status of a federal unit within the Social Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).
According to the second theory, however, the Republic of Croatia emerged as a sovereign and independent republic, as proclaimed on 25th June. Its sovereignty is, therefore, continuous and indubitable.
Keywords
emergence of the Republic of Croatia as the subject of the international law; efficiency of the state authority; sovereignty; independence; succession
Hrčak ID:
100273
URI
Publication date:
15.4.2013.
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