Mid November last year the Act on Public-Private Partnership came into effect together with the Act on Concessions and the Act on Amendments of the Act on Public Purchase. All the three acts make up a group of regulations which have now been complied to the regulations of the European Union. In the classification of the regulations on public purchase, concessions and public-private partnership the EU tries to establish a unique market or unique terms of operations on this market, pursuant to the principles of the Rome Agreement from 1957, which represents a fundament of the European Union. The Act on Public-Private Partnership is a completely new act, which has not existed in the Croatian legislation so far. The regulations referring to this area comprised the Directives for application of the agreements on public-private partnership and the Decree on providing consent in advance for signing the agreement on public-private partnership according to the model of private financial initiative.
Associations are private and legal societies of persons which exercise the constitutional principle of citizens’ freedom to associate. At least three founders – physical or legal persons - are necessary for their establishment. The Act on Associations provides the possibility of establishment of asscociations abroad. An association can have a legal characteristic if it is entered into the Register of Associations, i.e. non-legal characteristic if it is not entered into the Register of Associations. Upon establishment of an association it is necessary to call up the establishment meeting at which the statute of the particular association is to be accepted. After three months the association is to be entered into the Register of Associations at the competent office of the state administration. Due to the principal voluntary character of its registration, a small number of founders and a relatively simple procedure of registration such an institute has become, besides limited liability companies, the most common way of private and legal association of citizens.
The author of the text makes a detailed presentation of procedures upon recruitment of civil servants and includes the graphs of recruitment procedures and a detailed description of each step. Finally, the author presents certain attitudes referring to the improvement and development of the modern civil servants system. In his opinion the procedures of recruitment of civil servants should be complex (sometimes even complicated) due to the fact that the successful selection of candidates is the result of the application of more complex procedures. The procedures of recruitment should enable the selection of top quality candidates who have the knowledge and ability to perform the particular job operations. Besides, the author stresses the need of permanent motivation of civil servants in order to be able to perform their work efficiently (primarily through the system of bonuses and advancement), which should finally ensure satisfaction with the work they perform
The new General Tax Act came into effect at the beginning of this year. Its aim is to comply the Croatian tax legislation to the legislation of the European Union in order to prepare the Republic of Croatia for full membership in the European Union. This Act concretely complies the Croatian legislation to the Directives 77/799, 2008/55 and 2003/48 of the European Union, which refer to the administrative co-operation among the member countries of the European Union in the field of taxes and exchange of information on the paid interests on the income from savings. The General Tax Act tries to solve some doubts and incomplete data which used to appear before. Some provisions have been amended and some have been fulfilled by additional information. The new solutions of this Act should contribute to more regular, consistent and unique application of tax regulations and other public contributions.
The sales of real estate brings about multiple tax liabilities. Firstly, the sales of real estate is taxed upon transfer of the ownership right to the particular real estate. The tax liability depends on the type of real estate. The sales of real estate such as land and the old real estate (built before 1 January 1998) as well as the new real estate (built after 1 January 1998) performed by physical and legal persons who are not VAT payers (such as banks, savings banks and small-sized enterprises) is subject to capital transfer tax at a 5% rate. In the case of sales of the new real estate (built and delivered after 1 January 1998), delivered by VAT payers, there is a VAT payment liability of 22%. Secondly, under certain circumstances there arises an income tax liability for physical persons who have realised their income through the sales of real estate.
In view of the structure of organs in an enterprise there are two main concepts: monoistic and dualistic. Both concepts must have two organs: the general assembly (the organ which all the members have the right to participate in) and the management (the organ which runs the company’s operations and represents the company). The difference lies in the fact that in the monoistic system there is no legal and strict separation between the functions of managing and supervison of company’s activities. Supervision is thus performed by the organ which runs the business or partially by this organ and partially by the assembly. In the dualistic system the management and supervison roles are separated, whereby supervison is performed by the supervisory board. The monoistic systems prevail in Anglo-Saxon law and the dualistic systems in the Continental law, especially in Germany and Austria. The Croatian Companies’ Act has accepted the typical dualistic system of the German law, which includes the organs: general assembly, supervisory board and management.
Doping and betting in sport (especially in professional tennis for men) have considerably expanded in these days. Their consequences cannot be completely perceived or foreseen. The authors of the article point to some existing problems and suggest the solutions to diminish them. The most important issue in doping is the reliability of the drugs tests, i.e. the risk that someone is unjustifiably accused or even punished. In betting, which is basically a legal activity, forbidden only to some persons (players primarily), it is necessary to prevent various possible abuses. Each match setting should be strictly punished. The methods of match setting are rather sophisticated and hardly tracable. Therefore, the sanctions (aimed at its prevention, primarily) should be drastic and ensure that the sanctioned person is really guilty.
In court practice there arose an issue on court decision regarding the compensation for lost income in HRK in the case when its value has been determined in foreign currency. This occured in the time of high inflation when creditors’ interest was to record their cash receivables in foreign currency due to the fact that the Croatian currency was likely to lose on its value. According to the Act on Obligatory Relations a contract may include the provision that the contract liability in HRK is calculated according to the price of gold or the exchange rate of HRK in relation to a foreign currency. If the parties have not agreed on some other exchange rate, the value of the liability is calculated in HRK at the sales exchange rate published by the foreign exchange market, i.e. Croatian National Bank, which is valid as at the due date or upon request made by a creditor on the payment date. If the cash liability refers to the payment in gold or a foreign currency, which is against the law, its payment may be required in HRK only at the sales exchange rate published by the foreign exchange market, i.e. Croatian National Bank, which is valid as at the due date or uopn request made by a creditor on the payment date.
The competence of courts in proceedings with an international character (international competence) in civil and commercial cases is determined in the EU by the Directive (EC) 44/2001 from 20 December 2000. The above stated Directive, which became effective on 1 March 2002, is based on the Art. 65 of the Contract on Foundation of the European Comunity within the framework of court co-operation in civil proceedings among the member states. Before this Directive became effective, these issues were in the EU regulated by the Brussels Convention on Competence and recognition and execution of court orders in civil and commercial cases from 1968, which was one of the most successful international contracts in the history of the international civil law. Since the Directive represents a novelty of this convention, it is shortly called the Brussels Directive I. The directives of the European Union have directly been applied in all the member states since the day when they became effective and they do not interfer into the internal law of a particular country. The Brussels Directive I will be applied in Croatia when it acquires the full membership in the EU.
The article deals with international economic sanctions, primarily those by the United Nations. The first part presents the international sanctions in general from the theoretical viewpoint of the international law stating the existing definitions and elements in its doctrine. It deals with the sanctions in the legal system of the United Nations and their economic sanctions and includes the basic mechanisms of acceptance and application of these sanctions within the United Nations and various critical opinions on their effeciency and humanity.The second part presents a brief review of the Croatian Act on International Restrictive Measures and some suggestions referring to their amendments, especially in the context of the future entrance of Croatia into the European Union, which implies the unique application of its international sanctions.
The authors of the text try to find the answers to the following questions: what is a strike?, when and why did it appear? , when does it appear? and what are its social determinants and values? The text raises the questions regarding the basic factors of the right to strike and indirectly the need to check the way and form of solving labour disputes. Conclusively, it is stated that the right to strike represents a constitutional category guaranteed to each employee, although it can be exercised collectively only. Such a collective dimension of this right is reflected in a specific role of trade unions, which have the legal right to organize a strike. It is also pointed to the fact that strike is to be used as the final means of pressure on employers, which means after all other legal ways of struggle for employees’ rights have been used up.
Autori: Mr. sc. Milorad ĆUPURDIJA, dipl. iur. Mr. sc. Safet SUBAŠIĆ, dipl. iur.
The article analyses the issues of determining justifiability of reminder before dismissal in legal proceedings. In view of the concrete legal proceedings and court decisions the author of the text states the opinion that an employee in a labour dispute has the right to determination of unjustifiability of the received reminder before dismissal, which is against the opinion of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia. An employee has such a right according to the Art. 187., Par. 2. of the Act on Legal Proceedings (right to make a claim for determination if a plaintiff has a legal interest in making such a claim) referring to the tangible provision of the Art. 133. of the Labour Act. Some new practical solutions i.e. different viewpoints by the courts of lower instance are stated in the article (Decision made by the Municipality Court in Zagreb in July, 2005, Decision made by the County Court in Zagreb in July, 2006 and the Decision made by the County Court in Vukovar in June, 2008).
Cilj ovoga članka je da, ponajprije, ukaže na bitne odredbe Zakona o arbitraži i proanalizira ih u duhu egzegetske interpretacije, zatim da dâ usporedbu odredaba ZA-a s pandan odredbama drugih referentnih zakona, osobito ZPP-a, te da pokuša ukazati na izvjesne nedorečenosti i manjkavosti zakonskog teksta sa svrhom njihovog uočavanja i popravljanja – u funkciji pravilne i razborite primjene zakonskih normi.
The new Act on Law Clerks and Bar Examination, which became effective on 1 January 2009 and replaced the old almost 35 years old Act on Law Clerks and Bar Examination, regulates in detail the conditions for acceptance of law clerks at courts and General Attorney’s Offices, the duration of the traning period, the goals and ways of the training as well as the part of professional training for law and public notary clerks, and law school bachelors in the state administration, local and regional governments and other legal persons and the persons working in science, education and as assitants at faculties, who plan to pass the bar examination.