THE NEW CROATIAN GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURAL LAW

The aim of this working paper is to analyze the final proposal of the Law on General Administrative Procedure which should be enacted by the Croatian Parliament in March, 2009, and enter into force on the first of January, 2010. Having this in mind, the first part of the paper analyses general provisions stressing the application of the Law, definition of the administrative matter, possibility to deviate from provisions of this Law, issue concerning the jurisdiction in administrative procedure, authorized person conducting the procedure and deciding upon the administrative matter, administrative legal aid providing and finally participation of the party in administrative procedure. Following parts of the paper deal with the course of procedure paying a special attention to conditions to start the procedure, conduct questioning and provide evidence, take certain actions in the procedure, setting the deadlines, deadline calculation and notification of procedure participants. Further on, the authors analyze settlement of administrative matter, i.e. of issuing the administrative decision, and scrutinize legal redresses giving a special attention to the complaint as a regular legal aid, complaint, reopening of a case, pronouncing the administrative decision to be null and void, annulment and revocation of the administrative decision. Finally, the authors provide a deep analysis of administrative decision execution. A special part of the paper presents an overview of the administrative contract, which is the new institute in Croatian legislation, and an overview of legal protection of other actions conducted by the public legal body. According to the final proposal of the Law, the legal protection is provided against an unlawful action of public legal body as well as the protection of rights of public service users. The authors also present an overview of issuing certificates on facts which are part of the official records kept by public legal bodies and these which are not. Finally, the authors point at the new legal regulation governing the procedural costs. The final part of the paper presents a conclusion in which the authors emphasize actions to be taken to successfully implement this Law in practice.