Courts and Tribunals - Croatia

Introduction

The Judicial structure is regulated by the Law of the Courts. All judges are appointed for life by the State Judiciary Council. The Minister of Justice names the presidents of the courts from among the appointed judges and the president of the Supreme Court of Croatia is chosen by the Parliament based on a proposition from the Cabinet.

There are four types of courts:

1. Courts of General Jurisdiction including municipal courts, county courts, and the Supreme Court. Courts of General Jurisdiction judge all disputes, except those where the law explicitly provides for the jurisdiction of another court. These courts are organised hierarchically into three levels and are divided into regions.
2. Commercial Courts. Commercial Courts are organised in two levels. First instance courts try cases between commercial subjects in bankruptcy proceedings, liquidation procedures, maritime litigation, litigation over patent and intellectual property rights, execution procedures, commercial violations and any other violations committed by enterprises. The court manages the registry of all commercial enterprises in Croatia. Appeals against judgements of first instance commercial courts can be made to the High Commercial Court level. The legal remedies against the decisions of High commercial court are decided upon by the Supreme Court of Croatia.
3. Police Courts. These courts pass judgements on physical persons for misdemeanour offices. They are organised in two instances:
   1. First instance police court on municipal level.
   2. High Police Court in Zagreb as an appellate court.
4. The Administrative Court is not a full jurisdiction court and European Court for Human Rights does not recognise its judicial powers.