NEW CONCEPTS OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT IN THE JULY CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS OF 1990

ON THE THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

Abstract

In the year marking three decades since the adoption of the Christmas Constitution, the importance of constitutional amendments promulgated by the Croatian Parliament at the end of July 1990, which together with the February Constitution from the time of the still existing Socialist Parliament form the basic preconditions for initial democratization of the Croatian constitutional system. From a legal-historical and constitutional point of view, the authors consider this issue important for the modern Croatian state. Traditional Croatian historiography analyzes these amendments exclusively in their substantive sense of regulating the new state coat of arms, the flag and abolishing the socialist attributes. Although the amendments are normatively not numerous, their meaning is much broader. At the heart of this analysis lie the issues of a new understanding of state sovereignty and reform interventions in state organization. The authors analyze the relevant provisions through the original records of parliamentary debates. They first point to the basic trends of constitutional changes comprised in the July amendments, referring primarily to the identity level, and then they point to the strengthening of state sovereignty and changes in the direction of developing the features of modern parliamentary democracies. The planned reorganization of the executive -administrative power is especially considered here. At the end, the feed back of the July constitutional amendments and the beginning of work on the new Constitution of the Republic of Croatia are presented.