The Law on Obligations (Zakon o obveznim odnosima, ZOO) is one of the significant pieces of legislation in Croatian private law. Enacted in 2005, it largely borrowed its content from the 1978 Law on Obligations, a federal law of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. While the 1978 law was considered highly innovative at the time and widely praised for its novel provisions, contractual and non-contractual obligations in Croatia have been governed by more or less the same set of legal rules for nearly 50 years.

Is the ZOO, in its existing form, sufficient, predictable, and up-to-date? Does it keep pace with the rapid changes of our time? These questions, along with many specific issues related to the application of the ZOO, have brought together several distinguished legal experts, specialists in this field – Professor Saša Nikšić (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law), Željko Pajalić (Justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia), Professor Zvonimir Slakoper (University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law and University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics & Business; Member of the ELI Croatian Hub Advisory Board), Associate Professor Ivan Tot (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics & Business; ELI Croatian Hub Co-Chair), and Branimir Tuškan (a retired attorney in Zagreb) – in a project entitled ‘Modernisation of the Law on Obligations’. The initiative seeks to assess the need for modernising the ZOO and aligning it with the demands of today’s era, marked by advanced technologies and globalisation.

Novi Informator, a Croatian publishing house renowned for its focus on legal literature and its 70-year publication of the Informator legal journal, has joined the project as its media sponsor. It will also serve as a platform for individuals wishing to contribute their experiences, proposals, and insights on the application of the ZOO. These contributions will be reviewed, discussed, and potentially translated into concrete, modern legislative solutions.

The implementation of the project is envisioned in four phases:

• Phase I – Collecting specific opinions on problematic aspects of the ZOO in legal practice.
• Phase II – Analysing the collected opinions and identifying rules that create issues.
• Phase III – Organising a series of round tables to discuss problematic legislative solutions.
• Phase IV – Concluding the project with recommendations for modernising the ZOO and initiating amendments to the legislation.

More details about the project (in Croatian) are available on the Novi informator website here.

ELI Croatian Hub supports this initiative and will co-host the series of round tables planned for Phase III of the project. Announcements and reports from these events will be timely published on the ELI Croatian Hub website here.