Former Presidents

The first composition of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia

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The former composition of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia after the proclamation of independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia in 1991. Left to right: Milan Vuković, Velimir Belajec, Vojislav Kučeković, Nikola Filipović, Ivan Marijan Severinac, Jadranko Crnić (President), Hrvoje Momčinović, Zdravko Bartovčak, Mladen Žuvela, Ante Jelavić Mitrović, Jurica Malčić


OMEJEC, JASNA (1962), LL D

Judge of the Constitutional Court (7 December 1999 - 6 December 2007)
Vice-president of the Constitutional Court (2001 - 9 December 2003)
Deputy president of the Constitutional Court (9 December 2003 - 6 December 2005)
Deputy president of the Constitutional Court (6 December 2005 - 6 December 2007)
Judge of the Constitutional Court (7 December 2007 - 7 June 2016)
President of the Constitutional Court (12 June 2008 - 11 June 2012 )
President of the Constitutional Court (12 June 2012 - 7 June 2016) 
 

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She graduated from the Faculty of Law, Osijek University, in 1985. She gained her LL D in administrative law at the Faculty of Law, Zagreb University, in 1994.

From 1986 she was assistant lecturer at the Department of Administrative Law at the Faculty of Law, Osijek University, and in 1990 she was elected to the Faculty of Law, Zagreb University, first as assistant lecturer then as senior lecturer, associate professor and finally as full professor at the Department of Administrative Law. 

She is a co-author of the first Croatian textbook on environmental law (1997) and author of the following books: The Council of Europe and the European Union: Institutional and Legal Framework (2008); the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights - Strasbourg Acquis (2013) and the supplemented edition of this book that was published in 2014. For that book she has received two awards: the 2013 Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts' award for social sciences and the Zlatko Crnić's Foundation acknowledgment for the book of particular significance for legal profession. She is author of several papers and articles in the fields of legal regime of common land, status rights of citizens, especially citizenship rights, relations between the state administration and local self-government, and electoral law. She is a co-author of several collections on constitutional court practice.

She was Head of the international project for the Republic of Croatia, Statelessness/Citizenship in the Former Yugoslavia Project, UNCHR, Geneva 1995 and member of the Croatian Government Commission for equality issues in 1998.

She is full founder-member of the Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences and member of the Institute for Public Administration, Zagreb. She is member of Advisory Board of the Max Planck Encyclopaedia of Comparative Constitutional Law. 

She was a substitute member of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) from the Republic of Croatia in 2005 and re-appointed in 2009. In 2010 she was appointed member of that Commission and re-appointed in 2014 when she was elected member of the Bureau and the Enlarged Bureau of the Commission. In December 2015 she was elected Vice-Chair of the Sub-Commission for Gender Equality, and she is also a member of the Joint Council on Constitutional Justice of that Commission.

She is lecturer in post-graduate studies in administrative and political sciences at the Faculty of Law, Zagreb University and lecturer in the post-graduate doctoral studies "Public Law and Public Administration" at the same Faculty and in Administrative Law - National and European Aspect at the "Post-graduate Specialised University Studies of Public Administration". She was a guest-lecturer at post-graduate level in Civil Law at the Faculty of Law, Zagreb University, in European Law at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Zagreb University, and in Environmental Law at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Zagreb University.

She is organizer, lecturer and participant at numerous scientific and professional domestic and international conferences, seminars and symposiums.


KLARIĆ, PETAR (1939), LL D

Judge of the Constitutional Court (7 December 1999 - 6 December 2007)
Vice-president of the Constitutional Court (2000 - 7 December 2003)
President of the Constitutional Court (7 December 2003 - 6 December 2007)

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Graduated from the Faculty of Law, Zagreb University, in 1962. In 1966, at the same faculty, gained his LLM in the field of international law and in 1982 his LL D in the field of civil law. Bar examination in 1969.

From 1996, legal officer and counsel in several corporations, most of them business firms. In 1974 lecturer at the two-year College of Public Administration in Zagreb. From 1983 employed at the Faculty of Law, Zagreb University, as senior lecturer, associate professor and professor at the Civil Law Department. From 1974 to 1984 editor-in-chief of Privreda i pravo (Economy and Law Journal) and from 1995 to 2000 editor-in-chief of Zbornik Pravnog fakulteta u Zagrebu (Journal of the Faculty of Law).

From 1990 to 1999 external member of the Parliamentary Legislative Committee and Committee for the Constitution, Rules of Procedure and Political System of the House of Representatives.

Author and co-author of several textbooks, research monographs and other scientific and professional papers in the field of civil law.

Head of the expert work group for drawing up the Law of Obligations. Member of the group working on the Adaptation of the Civil-Law System in Croatia.

Full founder-member of the Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences.

Lecturer at post-graduate level in the Faculty of Law, Zagreb University, in the law of obligations. Organizer, lecturer and participant in numerous scientific and professional domestic and international conferences, seminars and symposiums


SOKOL, SMILJKO (1940 - 2023), LL D

Judge of the Constitutional Court (7 December 1999 - 6 December 2007)
President of the Constitutional Court 1999-2003

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Graduated from the Faculty of Law, Zagreb University, in 1964. Gained his LL D at the same faculty in the field of constitutional law, in 1976.

From 1965 worked at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, first as assistant lecturer, then as professor and head of the Chair of Constitutional Law. From 1983 to 1985 he was vice-dean, and from 1989 to 1991 dean of the Faculty of Law in Zagreb.

As member of the Parliamentary Constitutional Commission and the Constituent Commission of the Croatian Presidency, and all their work groups, he was one of the professional authors of the first Constitution of the Republic of Croatia from 1990.

Since the inauguration of multi-party democracy, he has participated as an expert on developing new Croatian legislation in the field of public law.

From 1992, minister without portfolio in the Croatian Government, adviser of the President of the Republic in constitutional law, representative in the House of Representatives of the Croatian National Parliament, vice-president of the Parliamentary Committee for the Constitution, Rules of Procedure and Political System of the House of Representatives.

Author of eight books in the field of constitutional justice and political science and more than 120 scientific and professional papers.

Member of the Société de legislation comparé in Paris, France, since 1985. Full founder-member of the Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences.

Lecturer and guest-teacher at post-graduate level at the Faculties of Law in Zagreb and Ljubljana (Slovenia), and at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb. Organizer, lecturer and participant in numerous scientific and professional domestic and international conferences, seminars and symposiums. 

Retired in 2011. Passed away in Zagreb on 13 April 2023.


CRNIĆ, JADRANKO, LL D (1928 - 2008)

Judge of the Constitutional Court 1991-1999
President of the Constitutional Court 1991-1995, 1995-1999

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Graduated from the Faculty of Law, Zagreb University, in 1952. Gained his doctor's degree in the field of constitutional law at the same faculty, in 1999. Bar examination in 1995. Court clerk at the District Court in Dugo Selo from 1952, judge at the District Court in Gospić and judge and president of the Gospić Country Court, attorney-at-law in Dugo Selo, president of the Dugo Selo Municipal Court, judge of the Supreme Court of the Socialistic Republic of Croatia, president of the Supreme Court Civil Department. Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Socialistic Republic of Croatia from 1984, and its president from 1990. Judge and president of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia from 1991.

President of the Republican Committee for the Supervision of the Elections at the first multi-party elections in 1990.

Member of the Constituent Committee of the Presidency of the Republic of Croatia for drafting the first Constitution of the Republic of Croatia in 1990.

Member of a number of expert groups for drafting laws. Editor-in-chief of the journal Zakonitost (Legality), member of the working group Law and Society - Fundamental Research of the Croatian Academy of Science and Art.

Author of several hundred articles and about 40 books (including revised editions) in the fields of labour, family, property, housing and constitutional law. Reviewed a number of books. Delivered numerous lectures on various legal fields.

President of the Croatian Red Cross and honorary senior officer of the Croatian Fire-fighting Community.

Retired in 1999. Passed away in Zagreb on 4 April 2008.