CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES: COUNTERMAJORITARIAN ARGUMENT AS PROTECTOR OF DEMOCRATIC VALUES

Abstract

The formal legal frame for the protection of national minorities in Croatia is highly developed considering the regulations of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the Constitutional law on the rights of national minorities (as an organic law), concluded and ratified international treaties, and other laws and bylaws. Additionally, the readiness to protect the rights of national minorities is evident from the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court, which is accentuated by the conformation of the paragraph 2 of the constitutional Preamble, articles 1 and 3 (from which the acceptance of the so-called political conception of the people arises), and article 12, paragraph 2 (the possibility of introducing languages and scripts in formal use in local self-government units) as a part of the Croatian constitutional identity. Therefore, the reasons for the problems in exercising the rights of national minorities need to be sought in the insufficient level of political culture.