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In this paper, the authors present the organization of school nutrition in the primary school in Croatia and in some European Union countries and presents the main findings of researches which explored the importance of school meals for all children, especially those of lower socioeconomic status. This paper points out that school meals have a positive effect on children's academic success, which reflects in better school performance, especially in mathematics and reading. The socializing role of the school meal is explained in terms of the contribution of school nutrition in learning social skills and bringing students closer. The paper emphasizes the health aspect of nutritionally balanced and healthy school meals, which refers to the prevention and alleviation of obesity of students and other chronic diseases. In particular, the social aspect of school meals is explained, which play a significant role in the prevention of child poverty and social exclusion, which was further demonstrated during the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the paper presents the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the distribution of school meals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors' goal with this paper is to give insight into the complex world of European Union's State aid and public procurement rules which have an ever-increasing importance in EU law, in the EU, and consequently, in Croatia as well. The paper will first explain the four conditions that have to be cumulatively fulfilled in order for a certain measure to constitute an illegal State aid and after that, the authors will give an overview of the most relevant rules and conditions of the public procurement procedures. In their elaboration the authors will cover the EU State aid and public procurement rules from the perspective of: a) the primary legislation of the EU, that is, the Treaties; b) the secondary legislation; c) case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union; d) European Commission's documents and e) current academic legal reasoning. Moreover, the authors will pass their own judgement and give their opinion on the relevant rules and issues of EU State aid and public procurement rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic development of the right of asylum since the second half of the twentieth century until present days. Introductory, the paper explains a close correlation between refugee law and right of asylum since the asylum is one of the most important institute of the refugee law. After that, the author elaborates the development of the right of asylum which, at first, has been running parallel with the development of international protection of human rights, but later the content of right of asylum (as a part of refugee law) separated and weaved its own path in African, American and European soil. Paper's exposition starts with Universal Charter of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, then it focuses on 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Declaration on Territorial Asylum and Draft Convention on Territorial Asylum, to be completed with the review on regional documents, where is particularly important the exposition about the asylum in European Union because European set of rules about the right of asylum is incorporated in Croatian legislation and currently is being applied in the Republic of Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This scientific research paper will answer the question how did the EU's foreign trade policy developed through the years and what were the motives behind the evolution? The answer to that question is reached by a research and legal analysis of all of 31 EU's FTAs that are currently in force, with the addition of the FTA concluded with the Republic Croatia which is no longer in force. The authors believe that it is important to know the past so one could understand the present and discuss the potential future. For this purpose the paper contains the classification of 32 FTAs which have different rationales, scopes, political and economic motivations. The classification as a whole represents the evolution of the EU FTAs and by that mere fact, the evolution of the EU's foreign trade policy in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship of the European Union, known also as European citizenship, was established by the European Union Treaty signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992 and it has been in force since 1 November 1993. Citizenship of the European Union is supplementary to national citizenship acquired by all citizens of the European Union in their home countries. For semantic reasons, the notion of citizens of the European Union will be mentioned frequently in this paper, however, European Union is neither a super-state nor it consists of classical elements of a state; it is a political union without a state - a non-state entity. The introduction of the citizenship of the European Union, the acquisition and loss of the said citizenship, differences between the national and EU citizenship will be shown in the paper. We will learn of the EU citizens' rights and obligations and of the way in which the European Court of Justice has assessed these rights in its individual judgements. Relations between EU citizens and institutions will be analyzed and bodies will be mentioned that may be contacted by disgruntled citizens. The idea of a citizen is associated with the individual who is loyal to the community of his/her residence and expects protection, assured respect for human rights and the right to participate in the decision-making process of such community's public affairs. This paper will be made also in an effort to defuse most frequently expressed fears of the Croatian citizens in terms of full membership, which will happen in the following months, such that the process of joining the EU may be accepted with the least possible amount of doubt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulation Brussels II bis, or by official name The Council Regulation (EC) No. 2201/2003 of 27 November 2003 on jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and in matters of parental responsibility, repealing Regulation (EC) No. 1347/2000 is a legal instrument of the European Union which courts of Member States (except Denmark) are obliged to apply directly in all cases of an internationally characterized marital dispute that falls within the scope of the Regulation. Jurisdiction is determined by section 1 (Jurisdiction in matrimonial cases) and by section 3 (Common provisions) of chapter II. (Jurisdiction). This paper analyzes in detail the provisions of the aforementioned sections, that is, the criteria for establishing general jurisdiction, special and residual jurisdiction, with particular reference to the concepts of habitual residence and citizenship, and the provisions governing seising of a Court, examination as to jurisdiction, examination as to admissibility, lis pendens, and provisional, including protective, measures. The analysis is accompanied by the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the practice of the courts of the Member States in the application of the Regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organization of the judicial system and equal access to justice are basic preconditions for establishing an effective legal remedy system. But there are also numerous and vast financial requirements set for those who intend to engage in judicial proceedings. Therefore, legal systems in modern states offer help to those without sufficient financial means, covering their litigation expenses, awarding free representation, providing legal advice etc. The right to free legal aid has been increasingly recognized as one of integral components of the access to justice right, It is protected in the documents of international organizations (the Council of Europe and the European Union) presented in this paper. The author applies a comparative approach by comparing excerpts of free legal aid acts from Slovenia, Lithuania and Finland. The paper includes the means of enforcement of the right to free legal aid according to the legislation in force in the Republic of Croatia, but also includes the author's critical view on both present and future solutions presented in the Draft Articles on the Legal Aid Act analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world economic crisis is a key factor that will encourage fundamental reforms in the existing economic structures. With its development and consequences, it indicates the unsustainability of market fundamentalism. The established global instability sets a major challenge before Croatia: how can a small country such as Croatia overcome the incurred consequences, if the United States of America and the developed countries of the European Union have not been able to achieve that goal yet? A key hypothesis of this paper takes the view that the global economic crisis has affected the national economy to a small extent only, while the main factors of the current economic situation can be found in causes that generated and have been neglected in the past two decades. The research showed that the major part of respondents correctly identify the cases of problems in the national economy as endogenous. It receives additional foundation in a percentage of 93,5% of respondents who expressed the view that the problem of the Croatian economy are results of internal causes. At the same time, more than half of respondents believe that the world economic crisis has significantly affected the Croatian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show that the concept of State liability nowadays exists to enable the attainment of two goals: namely, the protection of the individual rights and freedoms, on the one hand, and the proper functioning of the public service on the other hand. Despite the antagonism between those two interests, they can be reconciled. If the State opts to protect the individual rights by permitting actions against it, the State gets in fact a partner who will show the spots of dysfunction within the system. Then the relevant authorities could react timely in removing them. In Croatian legislation there are several acts that provide for the liability of State for damage caused by the civil servants, but there is no comprehensive code that would regulate all aspects of State liability. Therefore, the general regime of Croatian Law on Obligations is applied to all issues not covered by those specific laws, such as the issue of causation and fault. Although Croatian positive law on State liability does not differ too much from the other European states, the case-law of Croatian Supreme Court reveals the opposite. The result of this is that the aggrieved citizen is not entitled to damages, unless the act or omission of the servant is a crime and not merely a tort. Nevertheless, there are improvements. In 2003, Croatia reintroduced the State liability for damages caused by terrorist acts and public demonstrations, military or police acts that previously existed within the Law on Obligations and then were derogated because of the overwhelming actions due to the war. This was a direct consequence of a decision of the European Court for Human Rights. Further on, the case-law of the Croatian Constitutional Court becomes more and more developed giving it the status of a guardian and a sort of Croatian legal 'avant-garde'. Although the improvements in certain spheres of Croatian law and the practice of the Croatian Constitutional Court are most welcome, it is still necessary that even ordinary courts accept such attitude in regard to the State liability. Otherwise, there is an improper balance between the interests of the State and protection of individual rights, at the prejudice of the latter. Due to the facts that Croatia is a candidate country for the membership in the EU and that one of the requirements for that is the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the ability to take on the obligations of membership, the presentation of the current state of affaires in Croatian law is followed by a short overview of the concept of State liability in the EU law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]