Legal status of the sea ports and port policy in Republic of Croatia

This paper aims at analyzing the legal status of sea ports in the Republic of Croatia, with special overview of the sea ports as maritime domain and at suggesting the objectives of Croatian port policy as well as necessary measures to achieve them. Seaports are an important factor in national and international traffic and economic chains. They are important economic multiplicators, especially in the view of creating added value and employment. The legal system of the Republic of Croatia with regard to sea ports and port activities is based on a special law (lat. lex specialis), the Law on Maritime Domain and Sea Ports. This Law determines the boundaries of maritime domain i.e. common property (lat. Res communem omnium) on a basis of a non-proprietary regime (lat. Res extra commercium), which is a century-long tradition on our territory. Facilities constructed within the maritime domain are treated as a land (lat. Superficies solo cedit) to which one cannot acquire the ownership or any other real property rights on any grounds. This non-proprietary nature of maritime domain creates certain problems in view of attracting investors to Croatian ports. The opinion prevails that the changes to the Law on Maritime Domain and Sea Ports, within the meaning of enabling ownership over a facility during the concession, as enabled by the Law on Ownership and Other Real Property, would significantly contribute to greater investments in ports and port activities. Finally, the conclusion is that the Law on Maritime Domain and Sea Ports is considerably under standardized and numerous situations in the practice are not being solved with clear legal standards, but with interpretations, which undermines the legal security.