Kako se razvijala dvostepenost hrvatskog upravnog sudstva: šta možemo naučiti?

Abstract

The document analyses the development of appeals in administrative disputes in the Republic of Croatia since the adoption of the Law on Administrative Disputes in 2010 onwards. The development of the mentioned institute took place in several stages (Law from 2010, Amendments to the law in 2012, and changes from 2014), where each subsequent phase was a response to the weaknesses and shortcomings of the previous phase and had the task of removing those weaknesses. The key problems in the appeal system under the Law on Administrative Disputes from 2010, which manifested itself very quickly in practice, are related to the excessive limitation of the appeal. The limit of the right to appeal aimed at more efficient (faster) administrative disputes, it seriously called into question the right to a legal remedy against a first-instance court decision guaranteed by the European Convention and the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia. The 2012 amendments did not remove the weaknesses of the 2010 Law. But the system of administrative judicial protection was significantly improved by the Amendments of 2014. The essence of those changes comes down to the liberalization of the „complain filter“; i.e., enabling the use of the right to appeal in relation to the largest possible volume of decisions of first-instance courts. This ensured a higher level of protection of the subjective rights of the parties, and the High Administrative Court was enabled to control first-instance administrative courts – by the way of appeal, unifying administrative judicial practice.