Introduction

Even though the circumstances surrounding the spread of Covid-19 are not a typical emergency such as war or imminent threat to the survival of the state, their consequences have strongly impacted global living conditions in a way that only a grave crisis can do.

My chapter is focused on the specific Croatian experiences with the Covid-19 crisis. In the second part of the chapter I first present the legal framework under which the national authorities have so far dealt with the pandemic. In principle, Croatia decided not to invoke the constitutional provisions on the situation of a ‘severe natural disaster’ and thus opted for applying special legislation. Further­more, I add a presentation of all the decisions of the Croatian Constitutional Court by virtue of which in September 2020 it reviewed constitutionality both the laws and special regulations enacted for combating the pandemic. In the third part of the chapter I first give some general remarks on the position of the rule of law principle in contexts of emergencies and on the possible role of courts thereof. In the following part, I focus on the evaluation of the case law of the Croatian Constitutional Court. My general conclusion is that the Court in the ‘corona cases’, with only a few exceptions, was largely deferential to the under­takings of the Government. My personal opinion, however, is that the Court should have taken a different path and that it should have been more active in examining the totality of Covid-19 anti-epidemic measures in Croatia. In the remaining section of this chapter I will try to explain the reasons for that conclusion.

1 See: UN News: Covid-19 pandemic, an ‘unprecedented wake-up call’ for all inhabi­tants of Mother Earth, at: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062322, 21 October 2020.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003200666-14

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