"Business as unusual": Pandemic concentration of executive powers in Croatia

Abstract

Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, countries around the globe responded with a wide range of special measures. Whereas some of them resorted to their constitutional emergency rules, others opted to act through legislation. The author argues that the effects of the legislative approach to the epidemic in Croatia actually resemble the state of an emergency in the proper sense of the word, although the authorities try to present the whole case as a situation of "legal normalcy". More precisely, the author claims that in practice the adopted model produces concentration of power in the executive branch far beyond what one could expect in ordinary times. To prove that, the author analyses the Croatian legal anti-epidemic framework through several elements (declaration of emergency, law-making powers, overview of executive emergency actions, parliamentary sittings). Finally, the author argues that the constitutional state of natural disaster in Croatia should have been proclaimed.

Susprezanje autonomije političkog predstavništva građanskim inicijativama

“…17. već obuhvaća takvu većinu i ne daje naznačiti da od nje postoji mogućnost odstupanja. 14 Da bi se zanemarili ovi jasni tekstualni okviri djelovanja zakonodavca, bilo je potrebno pretpostaviti da supostojanje "redovitih" i "izvanrednih" uvjeta ograničenja temeljnih prava čini okvir političke prakse koji je u stanju otkloniti ono što je propisano temeljnim aktom. Takvo što nije dvojbeno samo stoga što postoje jasne ustavne odredbe čiji smisao Ustavni sud nema ovlast obeznačiti, već i iz gledišta svojeg cilja.…”

Mapping the constitutional terrain of vulnerability in the COVID pandemic

“…14 The same heroic aura originally accompanied the publicly engaged members of the National Civil Protection Headquarters, a body of the executive power entrusted with defining the applicable pandemic measures, as well as the then-new Minister of Health. 15 The range of measures that ushered in the "new normal" also revealed a staging ground for a range of vulnerabilities: those attributable to anyone who may get infected by the virus, those affecting individuals particularly vulnerable to more serious forms of disease and, finally, vulnerabilities of individual social formations. The latter included the healthcare, educational and social care systems, themselves catering to the needs of the vulnerable.…”

The clarity of referendums: An instrument for managing the (dis)continuity and perception of change

“…Tierney differentiates three requirements a question must meet: it must be linguistically clear, its form and content must be unitary and its consequences must be predictable. 20 The most fundamental form of clarity is the one that relies on linguistics. In this sense, "[c]larity involves using words that are known to one's audience and matching delivery to the intended meaning".…”