CROATIA

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CROATIAN ASSOCIATION FOR LEGAL AND SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY OF LAW AND STATE (CALSP)

Members and Contact Information

Associates

  • Luka Brajkovi?, Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka, Hahli? 6, HR-51000 Rijeka. E-mail: luka.brajkovic@uniri.hr
    CV: https://pravri.uniri.hr/djelatnici/luka-brajkovic/;
  • Marianela Delgado Nieves, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Trg Republike Hrvatske 14, HR-10000 Zagreb. E-mail: mdelgadonieves@pravo.hr
    CV: https://www.pravo.unizg.hr/marianela.delgado_nieves
  • Svan Relac, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Trg Republike Hrvatske 14, HR-10000 Zagreb. E-mail: svan.relac@pravo.hr
    CV: https://www.pravo.unizg.hr/en/svan.relac; CALSP secretary

Adjuncts

  • Žarko Puhovski, retired, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb


Information on CALSP

Background and development of legal education in Croatia

While the beginnings of legal education in Croatia can be traced back to the Dominican studium generale in the 14th century Zadar, the first modern Croatian law school was founded in 1776 and reconstituted as a Faculty of Law at University of Zagreb in 1874. The Faculty taught political economy, finance and, by the first Austria-Hungarian chair in sociology (1905-), sociology and criminology, and even practical philosophy, as a required course in three terms taught by a philosopher. Nonetheless, the Faculty offered, due to the Austrian grounding of legal education in Roman law and German legal history, philosophy of law and/or theory of law till 1933 only as optional courses. However, a Hegelian course in the General History of Law and State performed the function of legal philosophy and/or legal theory.

Legal philosophy/theory became a cornerstone of Croatian legal education due to, bizarrely, Soviet communism after the Second World War, when the Sovietized German Theory of Law and State became a compulsory course of the undergraduate law curriculum. Berislav Peri? (1921-2008) of Zagreb Faculty of Law established himself by a dissertation on autonomy and heteronomy in law in writings of Immanuel Kant and Rudolf Laun (1955), at the time when his colleagues in the University department of philosophy were writing on Marx and Plekhanov. Nikola Viskovi? of Split Faculty of Law (1938-) in his Pojam prava (Concept of Law) (1976, 1981) construed, following chiefly Carlos Cossio, an integral theory of law, which has been adopted by several Croatian legal theorists. It starts from professional experience of lawyers but with a view of also providing a Marxist critique of ideology, including a critique of the self-image of lawyers. To that end Viskovi?’s integral theory conceptualizes law as a unity of legal standards of conduct, both positive and extra-positive, and social relations, that is, social conduct.

“The Working Group Law and Society: Fundamental Problems” of the Yugoslav (since 1990 Croatian) Academy of Sciences and Arts, led by Natko Kati?i? and Eugen Pusi?, with the assistance of Ivan Padjen, engaged in the 1980s in a Croatian-styled Methodenstreit, publishing proceedings in five volumes of Pravo i društvo (Law and Society) (1980-89). Miomir Matulovi? and Nenad Miš?evi? were developing analytical philosophy of law in Rijeka in the 1980s and 1990s. Matulovi?, who introduced theories of human rights in Yugoslavia and Croatia, made many translations of texts in legal philosophy and edited special issues of periodicals on the subject. Zoran Pokrovac, who expanded integral theory of law by doctrine of free law, convened thirteen Croatian-German juristic symposia in Split from 1997 to 2008. The topics included „Education of Lawyers and Notaries“ (2000), „Sources and Methods of Law“ (2001), and „Transfer of Laws“ (2006). Legal theorists from all Croatian faculties of law, namely, Rijeka, Split, Osijek and Zagreb, accompanied by colleagues in political science and philosophy and led by Ivan Padjen, conducted a joint research project “Theoretical and Methodological Framework of Legal Research and Legal Pluralism” in 1986-90. It was continued on a smaller scale (“The Rule of Law”, 1990-95, and “The Legal System: Fundamental Problems”, 2006-2014). Padjen and Miomir Matulovi? edited Croatian Critical Law Review (1996-99), with Zoran Pokrovac as a member of the editorial board.

CALSP and its activities

It is against this background that Croatian Association of Legal and Social Philosophy and Theory of Law and State (CALSP) was founded in Split in 2007 by Ž. Haraši? (Split), M. Matulovi? (Rijeka), I. Padjen (Zagreb, Rijeka), Z. Pokrovac (Split, Frankfurt a.M.), N. Viskovi? (Split) and D. Vrban (Osijek, Rijeka).

Early activities

Among its first activities, the CALSP sponsored the 12th Croatian-German Juristic Symposium “Academic Rights between the Humboldt University and the Bologna Process” (Split, 2008), 4th Central and Eastern European Network of Jurisprudence Annual Meeting (Rijeka, 2008), and “The Concept of Law: Viskovi?’s Integral Conception of Law” (Rijeka, 2009).

Pokrovac and Padjen edited Zabrana uskrate pravosu?a i prava: 11. Njema?ko-hrvatski pravni?ki simpozij, Split, 27.-28. travnja 2007. / Justiz- und Rechtsverweigerungsverbot: 11. deutsch-kroatisches Jurisensymposium, Split, 27.-28. April 2007 (Split: Pravni fakultet Sveu?ilišta u Splitu / Rechtswissenshaftliche Fakultaet der Universitaet zu Split i Hrvatska udruga za pravnu i socijalnu filozofiju / Kroatische Vereinigung fuer Rechts- und Sozialphilsophie, 2010).

Duško Vrban, Metodologija prava i pravna tehnika (Methodology of Law and Legal Technique) (Osijek: Pravni fakultet Sveu?ilišta J.J. Strossmayera, 2013) was presented at a conference in Osijek in 2014.

Conference and Lectures Organisation

Luka Burazin of the Faculty of Law at University of Zagreb has (co-)convened the 6th Central and Eastern European Forum of Young Legal, Political and Social Theorists (Zagreb, 2014), 2nd Revus Conference “The Province of Jurisprudence Naturalized“ (Krakow, 2016), 13th Central and Eastern European Network of Jurisprudence (Zagreb, 2018), Law, Language and Philosophy Summer School (Dubrovnik, 2021), and a number of visiting lectures at his home faculty (among others, lectures by Kenneth E. Himma, Robert Alexy, Matthias Klatt, Dan Priel).

CALSP, Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences (CALS), and University of Split Faculty of Law held the conference Theory and Methodology of Law: Work in Progress at the Faculty of Law, University of Split, in 2016. The Conference included the presentation of Ivan Padjen, Metodologija pravne znanosti: pravo i susjedne discipline, with a summary in English Methodology of Legal Science: Law and Related Disciplines (Rijeka: Pravni fakultet Sveu?ilišta u Rijeci, 2015).

CALSP and CALS held the conference „Hohfeldova teorija prava“ (Hohfeld’s Legal Theory) at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, in 2017. The Conference included the presentation of Ivana Tucak, Hohfeldova analiti?ka teorija prava (Hohfeld’s Analytical Legal Theory) (Osijek: Pravni fakultet Sveu?ilišta J. J. Strossmayera, 2016).

CALSP and CALS also held the international conference „Slobodno stvaranje prava“ (Free Law-Making) at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, in 2018. The Conference included the presentation of Zoran Pokrovac, Slobodno stvaranje prava: Ulrich M. Kantorowicz i slobodnopravni pokret (Free Law-Making: Ulrich M. Kantorowicz and the Free Law Movement) (Zagreb-Split: Naklada „Breza“ i Pravni fakultet Sveu?ilišta u Splitu, 2018).

In 2022 CALSP started a series of CALSP lectures which bring together legal theorists, legal scholars, and legal practitioners.

CALSP and the Zagreb Faculty of Law held two international student conferences in 2023 and 2024. The third edition is scheduled for May 2025. A conference titled “Pravno rasu?ivanje” / “Legal Reasoning” was held in 2024 in Zagreb, with the second edition set to take place in April 2025. In November 2024, CALSP organized the Split November Legal Theory Conference on Normative Conflicts and Legal Certainty, hosted by the University of Split.

In 2024 CALSP and Czech IVR section organized a Czech-Croatian Colloquium in Legal Theory at the Faculty of Law, Charles University (Prague), and CALSP, Split Faculty of Law, and Girona Faculty of Law organized a Spanish-Croatian Legal theory Conference at Split Faculty of Law.

CALSP members have been regular participants in annual conferences of the Central and Eastern European Network of Jurisprudence. Tucak, Padjen, Burazin and Kreši? are serving on its International Advisory Board, while Burazin and Kreši? convened the conference held at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, in 2018.

IVR World Congresses

CALSP members have also been active participants in the IVR World Congresses: Burazin, Padjen and Pokrovac in Frankfurt a.M. in 2011, Tucak in Washington D.C. in 2015, Burazin, Kreši? and Tucak in Lisbon in 2017, Luzern 2019, Bucharest in 2022, and Kreši? and Tucak in Seoul in 2024.

Ivana Tucak became a member of the Executive Committee of the IVR in 2024.

Special Workshops Co-convening

IVR World Congress in Luzern: Tucak (SW 63 „Legal Education in the Era of Globalisation“); Burazin (SW 64 „Law as an Artifact“); Kreši? (SW 52 „Ethnic Diversity, Plural Democracy and Human Dignity in Europe”).

IVR World Congress in Bucharest: Tucak (SW17 “CEENJ (Central and Eastern European Network of Jurisprudence) – Our Work in Progress”; Kreši? (SW36 “The Concept of Legal Consciousness”)

IVR World Congress in Seoul: Kreši? (SW24 “Varieties of Legal Realism – Methodological Perspectives for a True General Theory of Law?”)

Recent and Upcoming Publications by CALSP Members

Mario Kreši? co-edited the book “Ethnic Diversity, Plural Democracy and Human Dignity – Challenges to the European Union and Western Balkans”, Springer, 2022.

Luka Burazin co-edited the book “The Artifactual Nature of Law”, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022, the first book in the new series “IVR Studies in the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy”.

Luka Burazin, along with Kenneth E. Himma and Giorgio Pino, is the co-editor of the book “Jurisprudence in the Mirror. The Civil Law World Meets the Common Law World”, Oxford University Press, 2024.

Svan Relac published the book “Unatražno djelovanje normi” (Retroactivity of Norms), Zagreb Faculty of Law Press, 2024.

Žaklina Haraši? coauthored the book “Argumentacija u hrvatskoj upravnosudskoj praksi” (Argumentation of Croatian Administrative Courts), Split Faculty of Law Press, 2025.

Mario Kreši?, along with Jakob v. H. Holtermann and Marko Novak, is the co-editor of the book “Legal Consciousness”, Springer Cham, 2025.