CONSTITUTIONALITY DURING TIMES OF CRISIS: ANTI-PANDEMIC MEASURES AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE RULE OF LAW IN CROATIA
CONSTITUTIONALITY DURING TIMES OF CRISIS: ANTI-PANDEMIC MEASURES AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE RULE OF LAW IN CROATIA

Author(s): Ana Horvat Vuković, Valentino Kuzelj
Subject(s): Constitutional Law, Health and medicine and law, Administrative Law
Published by: Udruženje ekonomista i menadžera Balkana
Keywords: COVID-19; Crisis measures; State of emergency; Right of ownership; Croatian Constitutional Court
Summary/Abstract: The Croatian constitution-maker’s dedication to the concept of a social state begets the state’s duty to care for public health. This duty is especially salient amid the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic. One would be well-advised to be watchful of the dangers that periods of crisis pose for the viability of liberal democracies: in Croatia, protective measures against the COVID-19 disease have been entrusted to the national Civil Protection Command in an initially illegal way. This was later on retroactively convalidated by legislative “patchwork” solutions. It is to be expected that the issue of such measures’ constitutionality will in the foreseeable future present itself on the Constitutional Court’s docket. This paper focuses on one of the most contentious measures - that of a ban on Sunday trade, particularly its implications for the economic constitutional rights such as the right of ownership and entrepreneurial freedom. Furthermore, the authors’ analysis of several Constitutional Court’s decisions from the time of the previous economic crisis will endeavor to anticipate the Court’s decisions in upcoming cases.

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