HYPOTHEC ON THE CONCESSION OF THE MARITIME DOMAIN

Abstract

The maritime domain is an asset of interest to the Republic of Croatia, and, as a rule, it is economically exploited by means of a concession. Development projects carried out on the basis of a concession  often require significant financial resources, which the concessionaires obtain from banks and other  financial institutions in the form of loans. Among the possible means of securing the loan, the Maritime Domain and Seaports Act of 2003 introduced the  possibility of registering a hypothec on the concession. However, due to incomplete provisions that did not provide creditors with sufficient guarantees regarding the possibility of satisfying  matured claims, the hypothecation of the maritime domain concession did not take root in practice. The adoption of the new Maritime Domain and Seaports Act, which took place twenty years later (in July 2023), was an opportunity to remedy the perceived  shortcomings in the legal framework of the hypothec on the concession of the maritime domain and to regulate the matter in detail, thus making it an  attractive and high-quality means of securing claims. This article analyses the provisions of the new maritime Domain and Seaports Act and their  relationship to the provisions of the Concession Act with the aim of determining the extent to which the new legal framework provides satisfactory security for the claims of secured creditors and identifying legal solutions that need further improvement.