Compensation for Damages Caused by Violation of the Right to Respect for Family Life

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the problem of compensation for damages caused by violation of the right to respect for family life. In the first part of the paper, the authors will consider the interrelation between supranational and national sources of law, the combined interpretation of which makes it possible to identify minimum standards for the protection of family life and give a description of various life situations that may fall under the concept of "family life." Furthermore, based on the decisions of the ECtHR and the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, an attempt will be made to show which issues related to compensation for damages caused by violation of this right can be singled out as the most controversial. First, the criteria used by the ECtHR and the decisions of this court in judgments against the Republic of Croatia when deciding on adequate compensation based on Art. 41. ECHR are shown. Subsequently, the examples are given of the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia in which violation of the right to respect for family life was found, and some questions are pointed out that arise after such decisions in relation to the responsibility for the harm inflicted on them. Based on the fact that regardless of whether the specific violation was found by the ECtHR or by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, the same violation and the same harm is in question, therefore the authors have concluded that just as common minimum standards should be sought for the existence and application of common minimum standards in the normalization of the concept of family life itself, they should also be sought for the tort law position of the persons affected by its violation.