The Case Law of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia Concerning Migration and Asylum Issues

Abstract

This study analyses the case law of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia on migration and asylum issues initiated after Croatia acceded to the European Union. After the introduction (Sec.1), the study provides an overview of the relevant sources of migration and asylum laws (Sec. 2). The central part of the study (Sec. 3) analyses the legal reasoning of the Constitutional Court, which shows the change in its approach towards applying more significant standards of protection guaranteed by the EU Law and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, especially regarding the principle of ex nunc evaluation of the and the duty to ensure that the receiving third country is safe. The study also shows that further improvements in practice are required, as indicated by the cases against Croatia lodged before the European Court of Human Rights and other international human rights bodies concerning the issue of illegal pushbacks (Sec. 4). The study ends with main conclusions relating to the Constitutional Court’s role in safeguarding asylum seekers’ human rights as guaranteed by the EU law and the European Convention (Sec. 5). The conclusion is that the Constitutional Court follows the applicable case law of the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights. However, in some cases there seems to have been a lack of opportunity for asylum seekers to exhaust legal remedies against the decisions or actions taken by Croatian public authorities and ultimately access the Constitutional Court.