APPLICATION OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS BY THE CROATIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Implementation of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the case law of the Croatian Constitutional Court in the period 1999-2015 is analysed. Several models of implementation are outlined. All respective constitutional court cases are systematised into five categories: a) implementation through direct application of the Convention or its individual provisions, b) implementation through application of the European Court of Human Rights' case law, c) implementation through application of an individual provision of the Convention and the Court's case law, d) implementation on the basis of four main criteria, length of the proceedings, work of the competent bodies, applicant's behaviour, and case complexity, and e) implementation in cases in which only applicants allege violation of the Convention while the Constitutional Court has not explicitly mentioned the Convention in its decision. The coherence of the Croatian Constitutional Court's case law with the case law of the ECtHR can be best observed in the category of implementation based on four main criteria (d). Almost identical decisions about reasonable length of the proceedings indicate that the Croatian Constitutional Court has harmonized its practice with the European Convention.