Original scientific paper
Summary: The tasks of jurisprudence and legal profession on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the "Christmas Constitution". The constitutional choice and the processes of the implementation of the highest constitutional values and strategic goals of the Republic of Croatia
Branko Smerdel
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia came into existence at a "constitutional moment" as an integral part of the process of tearing down the old one and establishing a new world order, back in the year 1990 which is rightly called annus mirabilis. It has been adopted, in the first place, with the goal to lay the foundations, based on the inalienable right of self-determination, for the new independent Republic of Croatia as the nation-state of the Croatian people, with guarantees of full equality between all the members of the ethnic minorities and members of the Croatian people as well as of special collective minority rights. The difficulties and tragedies related to the implementation of that first and most important constitutional choice have been decisively influencing, down to the present day, the dynamics of the realization of the accompanying strategic goals: transformation of the new state into a democracy built upon the rule of law, the respect of and promoting human and ethnic rights and basic liberties, acting and developing, on the basis of the lasting democratic "Constitution of Freedom", as a part of the European and worldwide integrations whose goal it is to provide a "lasting peace and sustainable progress". "Christmas Constitution" – the Constitution adopted on 21st December 1990 has received immediately this popular designation since it was generally accepted as an expression of the people’s will for the establishment of a sovereign, independent, democratic state integrated into the international legal system of the democratic world. The goals specified in the Preface to the Constitution are specially treated in the Article 3 of the Constitution as the highest values of the constitutional order and the basis for its interpretation. That has given us a good constitutional text, accompanied by the genuine "belief in the Constitution", which for this reason entailed a huge potential of democratic development. The process of the realization of these basic constitutional values and goals was complicated, inconsistent and by no means irreversible. The Croatian choice of the form of the structure of government and election system is not of permanent nature and it is subject to constant reviewing. The human rights and basic liberties are being widened in terms of norm; still they remain suppressed and too often endangered or trampled underfoot. The popularity of the Constitution in the middle and low classes has sunk down compared to the popularity of the "Christmas Constitution" from 1990. Political and other elites have been suppressing, it seems, the Constitution unless it can be directly used for their short-term selfish goals. However, the highest values and strategic goals have been dominating the constitutional process for the first twenty years and today they are as current as at the beginning of the process, with possibilities for the realization being incomparably better. The author considers in short the process of the realization of the basic values and strategic goals as specified in the process of the creation and adoption of the Constitution and urges action for a renewal of the good reputation and influence enjoyed and exercised by the Croatian "Christmas Constitution" during the creation of the independent and sovereign state.
Keywords
Constitution; constitutional choice; constitutional moment; constitutional process; sovereignty; Republic of Croatia; European Union
Hrčak ID:
284497
URI
Publication date:
5.5.2017.
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