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4. "New Child Maintenance Obligation in Croatia: More and More Being a Concern of the Public Law and Less of the Civil Law"

In terms of the Croatian legislation, on 1 January 2008 new provisions of the Family Law came into force and are to be seen as a reform in the field of the family law maintenance. The legal provisions on maintenance had not been modified for the entire period of 20 years, i.e. from the Marriage and Family Relations Act of 1978 or the time when Croatia was a consisting part of the former Yugoslavia. The issue that triggered the new legal organization of child maintenance in Croatia also exists in other contemporary legal systems – the inefficiency of collecting maintenance contribution from the non-resident parent. Therefore, in Croatia it was fundamental to modernize legislation in order to accelerate and simplify judicial proceedings as well as to regulate new instruments of efficient collection of maintenance contribution. On the other hand, the state was obliged to find a conscientious approach to fulfilling its constitutional and international obligation of protecting the child and providing them with the material assistance and support programmes necessary for exercising their right to a decent living standard. A standard notice regarding non-settlement of maintenance contribution, instituting enforcement and criminal proceedings ex officio, representing the child in maintenance proceedings free of charges as well as state advance for the support of children are just some of the new instruments which imply the public law more than the civil law. It seems that the Croatian legislator is making the right steps since relieving the resident parent of instituting and participating in obnoxious legal proceedings (both civil and criminal) against the non-resident one also reduces the risk of their hostile attitude towards each other. Due to the fact that various researches all over the world have undoubtfully shown that conflict and hostile relations between parents are the biggest threat to child's welfare, child maintenance which would be a concern of the public law more than of the civil law, represents the right solution for the above issue and takes care of child's best interests.

Child Maintenance Obligations; Croatia; Public Law; Civil Law

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