Croatian courts will not check the authenticity of foreign court judgements on intercountry adoptions, the Jutarnji List daily reported on Tuesday, noting that in an amendment to the International Private Law Act, the Justice Ministry has given up on the change it had promised earlier. Pročitaj više

The proposal to amend the act in line with Supreme Court’s recommendations regulates the process of recognition of foreign court judgments on the inter-country adoption of children, namely those from countries that are not party to the Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Inter-country Adoption, Justice Minister Ivan Malenica said at a cabinet meeting last Friday.

Malenica claimed the proposal aims to increase legal certainty in the case of inter-country adoptions because proof of the legalisation of foreign court decisions will be sought.

Experts disagree, claiming that the proposal does not bring any crucial changes. The proposal does not include the key safeguard the minister promised in the wake of a case involving eight Croatian nationals whose attempt to adopt children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo has resulted in their being put on trial in Zambia.

The minister at the time explicitly promised that in the process of recognition of foreign court judgments on the intercountry adoption of children courts will have the duty to check the authenticity of foreign documents through international legal assistance to be sought by the Justice Ministry.

So far courts have only stamped foreign court decisions and they could be illegal.

The then State Secretary at the Justice Ministry, Josip Salapic, on January 25 confirmed the need for the ministry to check decisions on adoption made by foreign courts.

In the process of public consultation on the bill in April that change has disappeared, leaving the situation as it has been so far, with adoptive parents having the obligation to check the authenticity of foreign court decisions on adoption.

According to the daily, the Supreme Court President Radovan Dobronic described the lack of verification as “a legal void.”