Croatian state right

The Croatian state right (Croatian: Hrvatsko državno pravo) is a legal concept in Croatian law representing the body of rules on the system of governmnent and rules on functioning of public administrative bodies in Croatia. Croatian sources point out existence and application of those rights in the era of Croatia in personal union with Hungary and during the rule of the Habsburg monarchy, as evidence of Croatia's continuous statehood since the medieval Kingdom of Croatia. The Croatian state right is listed in the preamble of the modern Constitution of Croatia as a source of the country's sovereignty, referring to the legal status of Croatia as an independent polity within the framework of various states throughout its history.

Ante Starčević was one of the principal contributors to development of the Croatian state right.

The concept was first introduced in 1830 by Josip Kušević in the context of Croatian national revival. Kušević based the idea on preservation and strengthening of town privileges, presenting Croatian state right as a means of defense against magyarisation. The name of the concept was popularised by Janko Drašković in his 1832 Dissertation. The concept of Croatian state right was further developed by Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik. Starčević and Kvaternik argued that all people living in Croatia are Croats and that other nations can only exist by nation-building in their own states. Implications of this definition resulted in conflict between Croatian and Serbian nationalism.

Origin

The phrase Croatian state right was coined by Josip Kušević in 1830 as a reference to town privileges in Croatia. He argued that the regulations constituting the town privileges represented a feudal legal constitution. In 1790, Croatia's parliament, the Sabor, decided that a joint government with the Kingdom of Hungary would better protect Croatia from the threat of Germanisation and from the return of absolutist monarchs like the recently deceased Joseph II. Following that decision, a power struggle developed between the Hungarian and Croatian elites, groups which generally encompassed nobility and more affluent bourgeoisie. Hungarian elites promoted competing claims for a more centralised Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen encompassing Hungary and Croatia. Meanwhile, Croatian elites argued against centralisation, viewing it as a threat to town privileges and municipal rights; they considered the these rights evidence of Croatia's political autonomy, making them critical for the existence of Croatia as a polity.

National revival and nationalism

The idea of Croatian state right as a form of constitution was promoted in the 19th century during the Croatian national revival. It was a means of preservation of Croatian political autonomy within the Austrian Empire and subsequently the Kingdom of Hungary. In the second half of the 19th century, Croatian nationalism fought against Magyarisation of Croatia and Croats by defining Croatia as a political not relying on ethnicity. This made Croatian state right, along with the principle of self-determination, key to the formation of the Croatian nation. Croatian state right was referenced in the same context by Janko Drašković in the 1832 manifesto of the Illyrian movement Dissertation or Conversation Presented to Lawful Gentlemen Representatives and Future Lawmakers of Our Kingdoms: Delegated to a Future Diet of Hungary, Held by an Old Native of These Kingdoms (Croatian: Disertatia iliti razgovor darovan gospodi poklisarom zakonskim i buduchjem zakonotvorzem kraljevinah nasih: za buduchu dietu ungarsku odaslanem, držan po jednom starom domorodcu kraljevinah ovih), normally referred to as the Dissertation (Croatian: Disertacija).

Croatian state right was elaborated as a legal concept by Ante Starčević, the founder of the Party of Rights. In that respect, Starčević argued that states form "citizens' states" in which all citizens are equal and the definition of a nation does not rely on ethnic or religious criteria. Starčević's ideas regarding Croatian state right and implications on definition of the nation were further developed by Eugen Kvaternik. Starčević and Kvaternik described Croatian state right as belonging to the Croatian "political people", defined as medieval nobility and contemporary general public. Building on Starčević's idea that the existence of a state can create its associated nation, the two claimed that there are no other peoples in Croatia other than Croats because existence of other nations can only come about through their right to another, separate political territory. This definition of the Croatian state right created a conflict between Croatian nationalism and Serbian nationalism, as the latter advocated popular sovereignty which would erase borders of previously existing polities with the aim of uniting all Serbs in a single state, including the Serbs of Croatia.

At the Sabor convened in 1861, following the end of the absolutist rule of Austrian prime minister Baron Alexander von Bach, Starčević and Kvaternik put forward pravaštvo (lit. 'Rightism') as the ideology of the nascent Party of rights. The ideology called for integration of the Croatian nation on the basis of Croatian state right and for creation of a Croatian state independent of the Habsburg monarchy.

Subsequent applications

In 1917, as Austria-Hungary was facing its dissolution, representatives of South Slavs living in Austria-Hungary introduced the May Declaration to the Imperial Council, unsuccessfully proposing a reform of the monarchy. The declaration cited the concept of Croatian state right as its basis. In the context of the declaration, the reference to Croatian state right was meant as a reference to a source of legitimacy to act. Despite the failure of the May Declaration and loss of popularity and influence of Party of Rights after the end of World War I and the creation of Yugoslavia, the concept of Croatian state right persisted in Croatian politics. It was possible because it was endorsed accepted by Stjepan Radić's Croatian People's Peasant Party, which became the most influential political party among Croats in the interwar period following the 1920 elections.

During World War II, the State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH), established by the Communist Party of Croatia (a branch of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia), was founded as the supreme legislative body of Croatia under the control of the Yugoslav Partisans. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, ZAVNOH renamed itself the People's Sabor of Croatia (Croatian: Narodni sabor Hrvatske). The name change was designed to signify the historical continuity of the Croatian legislative body as a representation of Croatia's sovereignty. The modern Constitution of Croatia also references the Croatian state right in its preamble.

Modern definition

As a legal concept in Croatian law, Croatian state right refers to all written and customary rules on the establishment and functioning of government and public administrative bodies in Croatia. It also refers to the legal status of Croatia as a polity within the Kingdom of Hungary after the Pacta conventa, the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary. In Croatian law, application of the Croatian state right is interpreted as evidence of unbroken statehood of Croatia since the medieval Kingdom of Croatia.

See also

• Greater Croatia
• Greater Serbia

Sources

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