Hate Crimes in the Republic of Croatia: Some Theoretical and Practical Controversies

Sa？etak The authors primarily analyse the extent to which the provisions of the Proposal for the Amendment of the CPA of October 2019 (Proposal) have successfully transposed the provisions of the Directive on legal aid into the Croatian criminal justice system. In order to do this, they not only evaluate the conformity of the proposed provisions with the demands arising from the Directive, but also analyse the extent to which the proposed provisions have been adapted to the specific features of the Croatian criminal justice system, primarily to significant changes in relation to the right of access to a lawyer and to the police interrogation of a suspect which were introduced in Croatia with the Amendments of the CPA of July 2017. With regard to the modifications introduced in the area, the authors conclude that the Proposal has brought a number of positive changes in relation to the right to legal aid of the suspect and the accused person and that it has, to a certain extent, surpassed the demands arising from the Directive. At the same time, the Proposal contains certain major shortcomings because the right to legal aid of the suspect who has not been deprived of liberty includes important limitations which are not only contrary to the Directive and to the standards established in the jurisprudence of the European Court for Human Rights, but factually represent a denial of the right of access to a lawyer for suspects of limited means in the earliest stages of criminal proceedings. The paper also presents a brief critical review of the other solutions contained in the Proposal regarding the matter of pre-trial detention and precautionary measures, the extension of police powers to take evidentiary actions before the commencement of proceedings, the extension of the possibility to read the records of examination of witnesses and expert witnesses at the trial, as well as some other solutions that should contribute to shortening and accelerating particular stages of the procedure. Keywords: legal aid, righ