Josip Kregar: Judiciary in Croatia – Can it be Improved?

Summary of Josip Kregar’s presentation given during the roundtable Justice, Equality and Diversity in Croatia (English and Croatian Version):

Josip Kregar said there is a lack of professional communication and discussion with the judiciary because it has created a closed system in which the judicial authorities do not want to collaborate with academic community. In his opinion, there is not much that can be done, because such processes would last long and would be too expensive. He argues that judicial optimism is a part the daily discourse of politicians. Politicians claim that the possible solution is changing the law, but when the time comes they do not do so. Likewise, interest groups do not want the situation in judiciary to change because they benefit from the existing system and seek to annul any change that can lead to a just and functional judicial system.

Josip Kregar je rekao da je nestala svaka stručna komunikacija i rasprava s pravosuđem jer je nastao zatvoreni sustav u kojem pravosudna tijela ne žele surađivati s akademskom zajednicom. Malo se toga može popraviti, te će takvi procesi trajati dugo i biti preskupi. Tvrdi da je pravosudni optimizam dio svakodnevnog diskursa političara. Političari tvrde da promjenama zakona mogu riješiti probleme u pravosudnom sustavu, ali to ne čine. Jednako tako, interesne skupine ne žele da se stanje u pravosuđu promijeni jer imaju koristi od postojećeg sustava te nastoje anulirati svaku promjenu koja može dovesti do pravednijeg i funkcionalnijeg djelovanja pravosudnih organa.