Legal Framework

• The Law on Mediation (Official Gazette No. 163/03) came into effect on the 24th October 2003.

The legal framework for Mediation is completed with the Acts following:
The first rules of Mediation /Official Gazette No. 81/02) were adopted by the Mediation Center within Croatia Chamber of Commerce, on the 17th July 2002.

• The Act on the amendments to the Civil Procedure Act (Official Gazette No. 117/03), entered into force on 1st December 2003., and introduced a new provision on the obligation of the parties to try to resolve a dispute with the state by peaceful means (Art. 186a).
  Civil-Procedure-Act.pdf

• Apart from that the Labour Act gives guidelines for mediations in collective work disputes (Art. 213 et seqq.)
  Croatia Labour-Act.pdf

• Concerning victim-offender mediation, Art. 64 in the Juvenile Courts Act gives authority to the state prosecutor for juvenile offenders to decide to – in specific cases – compensate the damage caused according to his/her abilities.

• The Conciliation Act
• The Civil Obligations Act

• The Family Act
• The Criminal Procedure Act

In addition, the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the British Association for the Central and Eastern Europe (BACEE) implements mediation within courts. A pilot project is being prepared by the commercial Court in Zagreb and the High Commercial Court of the Republic of Croatia, a project that is going to be extended to the commercial court in Rijeka and Dubrovnik, and to the municipal courts in Zagreb, Split, Varazdin, Virovitica I Beli Manastir.
As incentive for court settlements, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Finland and the European Commission launched the EU CARDS 2002 Project about a reform of the Croatian court system with the goal to attain the largest possible number of court settlements.