15 September 2015. - Organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Croatian Constitutional Court, the Conference launching the book "Selection of Judgments of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Additional Edition in Croatian Language" was held today in the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. President of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Dr Zvonko Kusić, President of the Croatian Constitutional Court Professor Jasna Omejec, Head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Legal State Program in SE Europe Mr. Thorsten Geissler, German Ambassador to Croatia, H.E. Thomas E. Schultze and Judges of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany Dr Sibylle Kessal-Wulf and Wilhelm Schluckebier, addressed numerous representatives of the legislative, judicial and executive branches, academic community and the Croatian Constitutional Court. The book itself was presented by Professor Jasna Omejec, President and Dr Snježana Bagić, Vice-President of the Croatian Constitutional Court. Most of 51 translated judgments are dedicated to the fundamental rights, in the sphere where the jurisprudence of the German Federal Constitutional Court has made the strongest influence on constitutional courts of other European states, and also Croatia. As it was emphasised in the presentation of the book, not only the Croatian Constitutional Court directly invoked on the case-law of the German Court in many of its judgments, but was also influenced by the imperatives of the German Court on the interpretation of the constitutional text, although sometimes the jurisprudence of the two courts has necessarily been different. At the end President Omejec said: "The jurisprudence of the German Federal Constitutional Court has to be approached with the awareness of one's own differences, but never in a way that would avert us from trying to learn as much as we can from the experience and wisdom offered on a platter. The great 1949 German Constitution cannot be read without it, (...) nor can the modern European constitutional judiciary be understood."
