In the business practice there are many cases when employers terminate contracts on employment in an oral form. Taking into consideration the fact that the oral termination of the contract on employment does not have any legal effect, a disputable issue has arisen in the court practice – does the employee in the case of the oral termination of the contract on employment have the right to refute it at the court or is his legal interest protected by the possibility to file charges at the court in order to determine that his/her employment has not seized in spite of the oral termination of the contract on employment. The court practice in Croatia has not always dealt with thisissue in the same way. Therefore, the author of this article makes a conclusion that the employee has the right to protection of his/her rights according to the contract on employment referring to the provisions of the Art. 126, § 1. and 2. of the Labour Act even in the case of the oral termination of the contract on employment.
The new Act on Foreign Residents and the accpmpanying by-laws as the Rulebook on Status and Work of Foreign Residents in the Republic of Croatia and the Rulebook on Conditions of Issuing of Approval have resulted in significant changes of legal regulations regarding foreign residents. The above stated regulations refer less to work permits and to a greater extent to the procedure of issuing business permits. The institute of the previous approval of the authorized state administrative offices represents a novelty. They are significant pre-conditions for issuing a business permit to a foreign resident. The commissions entitled to issue the approval, whose work and organization are regulated by the Rulebook, should become a sort of filter through which the domestic economic system will by means of business permits let pass those foreign physical persons who really have a capital, quality business ideas and visions.
The Croatian Labour Act does not content direct provisions on stimulating employees but only principally deals with the possibilities of stimulating employees in accordance with the general principles of the labour law and the policy of the International Labour Organization, especially referring to the contract on employment, education and professional training, holidays, inventions and technical improvements, temporary employment contracts as well as the possibility of increase or decrease of salaries depending on the employee’s performance. Actually, the legislation provides rather minimum possibilities of stimulating employees. Although it should not be expected from the basic labour law to provide the modules of salary corrections due to the fact that this belongs to the confidential agreement between the employer and the employee, in our opinion the above stated issues should be taken into account upon new amendments of the Labour Act.
A shareholders’ meeting represents one of the organs of a shareholding company in which shareholders exercise their rights referring to the coompany’s issues through decisions they make, if such issues refer to the authority of this organ. The shareholders’ meeting is to be called if it is required in a written form by the shareholders who have 1/20 shares of the total share capital of the company – minority shareholders. In their request they have to state the purpose and reason of calling the meeting. The request is to be sent to the management. It could be stated in the articles of incorporation that the above stated right can be exercised by the shareholders who have shares to a lesser amount than stated above. These shareholders can also demand publishing of the subject of a decision-making at the shareholders’ meeting. Should their request not be accepted the court may appoint the shareholders who have made the request to call the general assemby by themselves, i.e. to publish the subject of the decision- making at this assembly. The court may also appoint a president of the shareholders’ meeting. In the notice of the meeting it should be pointed out that the shareholders’ meeting is called by the court authority stating the decision on authority.
The nature of things is a group of ethical, empirical and practical imperatives, which operate as a source of the law and rationally complete, improve or correct legal provisions. There is a number of other definitions of this concept, although even the writers who recognize the role of the nature of things as an argument or as a source of the law point out that it is not possible to provide a unique and satisfactory definition of this term. The term the nature of things is relatively common in the theory of law and legal practice. It is used in regulating specific areas of social life as well as in the field of application of legal provisions. The analysis of the legal instrument of the nature of things is oriented to the court practice too. In the practice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia there are three variants of its application: the nature of things as an instrument of interpretation of specific provisions of the Constitution or the law; the nature of things as an argument used upon evaluation of constitutionality or regularity of a certain provision; the nature of things as a legal and/or factual argument upon apprication of legal norms within passing and control of specific legal documents.
U prošlom broju našeg časopisa objavljen je prvi dio ovog članka u kojem je Autorica iznesla detaljnu analizu zakonskih odredbi koje uređuju pitanja vezana uz ugovore o komisionu, dok u ovom, drugom dijelu, analizira zakonsko uređenje ugovora o trgovinskom zastupanju, te daje i ogledni primjerak tog ugovora.
This article deals with the issue of determination of notion of third parties in automobile insurance, i.e., determination of persons that are entitled to compensation of damage caused by a motor-car in motion. The persons entitled to compensation of damage in automobile insurance may be determined in two ways: first, by negative determination of persons that are not afforded the right to claim damages (this is actually provided in the law of Republic of Croatia), and secondly, by positive determination, interpreting the law in order to determine the actual persons entitled to compensation of damage. The importance of such two-way approach is in raising the level of precision in identifying persons entitled to compensation of damage since the mere analysis of legal provisions does not, at first sight, enable the exact determination of such persons.
The article deals with the issue of patent protection and cedeng of right to use patents based on a licence contract. The subject of such a contract can be the intangible rights enjoying such a legal protection which provide licencing. The purpose of the legal protection of intellectual property and patents is to ensure specific exclusive rights to the holder of the patent protection which are limited in view of time and territory but also stimulating for the right holder. The right holder does not need to use the invention protected by the patent but can cede it to the other party according to the licence contract. The shortage of funds, experts and time as well as the poor possibilities of companies are removed by provision of ready-made solutions, which have already been or will be proved as successful. The income resulting from the management of rights of industrial property increases if the volume of the economic exploitation grows.
The author of this article gives the answers to the questions such as how to protect the seal abroad, what the effect of the international seal registration is and what legal documents regulate the above stated issues. The seal can be protected abroad in three ways: in the country where the seal is to be registered it is possible to submit through a local representative an application to the authorized office for protection of intellectual property; it is possible to submit the application for the international seal registration through the Madrid System of International Registration of Seals; it is possible to submit the application for the registration of the seal of the Community or through other regional systems of registration and protection of seals The registration of the seal of the Community will be applied when the Republic of Croatia becomes a full member of the European Union.
The new amendments of the Customs Act came into effect at the beginning of July this year. They are the latest of a number of amendments of the above stated Act which has been applied in the Republic of Croatia for more than eight years. They represent the continuity of adjustment to the EU customs regulations due to the consistent compliance with the valid European customs regulations and practice as well as their amendments passed in the meantime. The European customs law has namely being constantly changed in order to ensure the conditions of acceleration and simplification of the customs procedure and to conduct a complete and more efficient control of the irregular customs operations including the provision of conditions for complete and more efficient cooperation of the customs offices in the EU member countries.
In doing modern business on the EU common market and on the national markets of EU Member States the creation of the joint ventures has broadly developed as an adequate form of a joint commercial activity to achieve better business results by merging resources or specific knowledge (such as know-how). From the point of view of competition law the main issue refers to the possible effects of such business joining on the competition. The effects of joint venture activities can be positive, for example, a higher degree of innovation, development of new technologies, new products, increase of efficiency, lower costs and enhanced growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. On the other hand, the effects of a joint venture on the relevant market can be negative, such as division of the market, foreclosure of the market for new competitors etc. In the EU competition law it is considered that there is a greater possibility of those negative effects when joint ventures are created by actual or potential competitors. Therefore, the first step of a competition authority when dealing with the assessment of effects that a joint venture could have on a particular market is to determine whether the joint venture in question is to be considered as a concentration or as an agreement.
The application of commercial customs has explicitely been regulated in the comparative legal systems. The importance of the commercial customs has thus been stressed as a source of the autonomous commercial law and the contemporary lex mercatorie. Although there are differences in regulations which are specific in a particular legal system, the similiarity refers to the objective theory of application of commercial customs, according to which they are to be applied as lex contractus. The above stated point of view is included in the UN Convention on Contracts regarding International Trade of Goods, ULIS, ULFIS, the Principles of International Commercial Contracts, the Principles of European Contract Law as well as the new Act on Obligatory Relations from 2005, whereas the Act on Obligatory Relations from 1978, which was taken over as a positive Act of the Republic of Croatia in 1991, comprised the subjective theory of application of commercial customs.
