Maritime And Port Wardens – New Institutions In Croatian Maritime Law

Maritime domain is of exceptional importance for the Republic of Croatia, and as a thing outside of commercial trade, it cannot be the subject of ownership, it is exploited or used through specific maritime law institutes, i.e. it is a public property of interest to the Republic of Croatia and has its special protection. The Croatian legislation, appreciating the needs of the development of maritime domain, as well as the obligations to protect this highly valuable area, regulates maritime law institutes with the aim of such protection. According to the "new" Law on Maritime Domain and Sea Ports from 2023, the role of maritime and port wardens was introduced on the maritime domain, based on the provisions regulating the jurisdiction and actions of community wardens. The legislator was aware even before, and the professional public has also warned about this, that through the legally prescribed issue of order on maritime domain, through the prescription of the Institute of Maritime and Port Wardens, it must include all those life and economic circumstances and phenomena, i.e. uses on maritime domain for which the current normative framework showed shortcomings. In this paper, the author presents important innovations in the standardization of powers on the maritime domain for the purpose of rules of conduct on the maritime domain, as well as an analysis of the powers of the new legal institute of the maritime and port warden. Furthermore, it points to various details in the powers of maritime and port warden, as well as the possible need for additional legal regulation of the matter in question.