History of the Department of Maritime and Transport Law

The first instance of maritime and transport law teaching on our Faculty is to be found in the Statue Act of The Kingdom of Dalmatia, Slavonia and Croatia on the Organization of the University of Franz Joseph in Zagreb, dated 1874.

Maritime law is mentioned as a course in the 4th year of study, being a part of the subject called Commercial, Bill of Exchange and Maritime Law. Following the amendments to that Act in 1894, the mentioned course became an independent subject under the name "Maritime law", only later again to be incorporated within the Commercial Law Department.

In the following years, eminent professors such as Milorad Stražnicky, Ph.D, Pavao Rastovčan, Ph.D., Mladen Pliverić, Ph.D., and Pavao Rastovčan, Ph.D. teach maritime regulations and practice. Since 1916, two specialized assistant positions for private maritime law (first being Julije Mogan, Ph.D.) and public maritime law (first being Verona, Ph.D.) are constituted.

In 1941, a first independent Chair for Maritime Law is formed, with professor Vladislav Brajković , Ph.D., holding the Chair.  Professor Brajković successfully implemented the idea of independence of maritime law in both the educational and scientific sense. Further eminent professors to have taught maritime law within the Department include Professor Branko Jakaša, Ph.D. (since 1961) and Professor Velimir Filipović, Ph.D. (since 1971).

Today, the Department for Maritime and Transport Law consists of: prof. Aleksandar Bravar, Ph.D.  (Head of the Chair), prof. Nikoleta Radionov, Ph.D., prof. Jasenko Marin, Ph.D. and assistants Mišo Mudrić and Iva Savić.

 

Emminent Former Professors at the Department

 

 

VLADISLAV BRAJKOVIĆ Ph.D. (1905-1984)

 

Vladislav Brajković was born in Knin in 1905, to a family with a distinct maritime tradition, and after finishing high school in Kotor, he enroled at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade where he graduated in 1927. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Aix-en-Provence in 1933. After working for the Ministry of Transport, in 1937, he started his work at the University, first at the Faculty of Law in Subotica, and then in 1941 at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb as a professor of Maritime and general Transport law, thus becoming the first regular holder of the Chair for this subject.

Educational and scientific work of academician Brajković was very successful. This is documented by his work on the domestic legislation in the field of Maritime law and by the work he did on the international unification of Maritime law. As part of the CMI, he has been actively involved in the adoption of a number of important conventions: the Convention on the Civil Jurisdiction in the Case of a Collision, the Convention on Criminal Jurisdiction in the Event of a Collision and other Maritime Accidents and the Convention on the Temporary Arrests of Ships, the International Convention on Limitation of Liability of Shipowners (Brussels, 1957), Draft Convention on Responsibility of Entrepreneuers of Nuclear Ships, and Draft Amendments to the Convention on the Rescue and Assistance at Sea from 1910 (Rijeka, 1959), the Draft Convention on Maritime Liens and Mortgages (New York, 1965), the Convention on the Carriage of Passengers and Passenger Baggage (Athens, 1974) and others.

Academician Brajković was engaged in numerous organizations, particularly emphasizing his commitment to the establishment and operation of the Yugoslavian Association of Maritime Law (JUPP) in Zagreb, in which he acted as a president from 1954 to 1975. In addition, academician Brajković was also the vice president of CMI (from the 1969 to 1973), and a member of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Montenegrin Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a full member of the Yugoslavian Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1968).

 

Some of his most important work:

 

La notion et le fondement de l'heritage dans la ”zadorouga” yougoslave, p.o. Annales de la Faculte de Droit d'Aix, NO 20, Aix-en-Provence, 1931, pg. 1-49.

O sukobu na moru, Arhiv za pravne i društvene nauke, br. 4, Beograd, 1930, pg. 365-373.

Problem pomorskog zakonika ili zakonika o plovidbi, Zbornik Pravnog fakulteta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, 1948, pg. 287-298.

Kodifikacija pomorskog prava s obzirom na unutarnju plovidbu, Zbornik za pomorsko pravo, 1957, pg. 7-17.

Linee generali sulla legge jugoslava sui contratti di utilizzazione delle navi marittime, Il Diritto Marittimo, 1964, pg. 3-18.

 

 

BRANKO JAKAŠA Ph.D. (1919-1997)

 

Branko Jakaša was born in 1919 in Split, where he attended both elementary and high school. Afterwards he enrolled into the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, where he received his doctorate in 1943. After working for the Ministry of Ccoastal Shipping, Fishing and Local Transport and for the authorities of the Maritime Administration in Split, in1958 he was employed as an assistant at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, where he soon became a professor of Maritime and general Transport law.

Throughout his life professor Jakaša made top scientific achievements and it can be certainly said that he was one of the most prolific Croatian scientific writers in the field of Maritime private law. He published eleven books, more than seventy original scientific papers and numerous discussions. In addition he is the author of textbooks on Navigational law and Insurance law, and also of Land and Air Transport law. Particularly significant is his scientific contribution to the codification of Maritime law in Croatia. Aided by several prominent lawyers he also worked on and prepared the text of the Statute of Maritime and Inland Navigation which was adopted in 1978 (that text was later used for the preparation of the Croatian Maritime code).

For many years professor Jakaša was the head of the Adriatic Institute and an associate member of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the chief editor of the magazine Comparative Maritime Law.

The importance of his contribution to science is evident by the fact that in 1970 he received the Annual State Prize for Science, and in 1997 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award, whose delivery he unfortunately did not live to recive.

 

Some of his most important work:

 

Međunarodni režim morskih luka, Narodne novine, Zagreb, 1965, 221 pg.

Kopneno i zračno saobraćajno pravo, Informator, Zagreb, 1969, 599 pg.

Komentar zakona o prijevozu u cestovnom prometu, Liber, Zagreb, 1976, 411 pg.

Sistem plovidbenog prava Jugoslavije, Knjiga III, Sv. I, Informator, Zagreb, 1980, 296 pg.

Komentar zakona o pomorskoj i unutrašnjoj plovidbi, grupa autora, Narodne novine, Zagreb, 1981, 540 pg.

Sistem plovidbenog prava Jugoslavije, Knjiga III, Sv. II, Informator, Zagreb, 1982, 294 pg.

Udžbenik plovidbenog prava Jugoslavije, II izdanje, Narodne novine, Zagreb, 1982, 448 pg.

Sistem plovidbenog prava Jugoslavije, Knjiga III, Sv. III, Pravni fakultet Zagreb i ”Zrinski” Čakovec, Zagreb, 1984, 350 pg.

Pravo osiguranja, II izdanje, Pravni fakultet Zagreb, Zagreb, 1984, 426 pg.

Sistem plovidbenog prava Jugoslavije, Knjiga IV, Sv. I, Pravni fakultet Zagreb i ”Zagreb”, radna organizacija za grafičku djelatnost Samobor, Zagreb 1987, 221 pg.

Sistem plovidbenog prava Jugoslavije, Knjiga IV, Sv. II, Narodne novine, Zagreb, 1990, 500 pg.

 

 

Velimir Filipović Ph.D. (1935–2007)

 

Velimir Filipović was born in 1935 in Zagreb. He completed both the elementary school as well as classical gymnasium in Zagreb, where he graduated in 1953. He studied at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, and for two semesters at the Faculty of Law in Muenster and Kiel (Germany). He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb in 1959.

In 1960 he was chosen as an assistant for the Maritime law at the Adriatic Institute of Yugoslavian Academy of Arts and Sciences in Zagreb.

At the Faculty of Law he defended his disertation in 1964, and thus achived a doctorate in the field of science. In 1965 he was elected as a scientific collaborator of the Adriatic Institute. In 1969 he began his work at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb at the Department for Maritime and general Transport Law, where he was selected for a position of an assistant lecturer in1971,  in 1976 for the position of an associate professor, and in 1981 he became full professor. He was confirmed in this vocation in 1986 and in 1991.

Since his last vocational election he has performed all teaching duties both in a regular teaching and in the postgraduate courses in the Commercial and Civil law at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb as well as Law of the Sea at the Inter-University Centre for Postgraduate Studies in Dubrovnik. Since September 1993 he ran a Masters Degree program in Commercial Law at the the Faculty of law in Zagreb. From the 1986 to 2003 he was the Head of the Department for Maritime and Transport Law.

He participated at many domestic (Dubrovnik, Opatija, Pula, Rijeka, Split, Zadar) and international (Athens, Bamberg, Brussels, Gent, Goettingen, Hague, Hamburg, Ludwigsburg, Munich, Paris) conferences.

By the order of the minister prof. Rudolf in 1992, he created a study on "Adjusting the (domestic) maritime shipping to European integrations" for the purposes of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications. As a member of the committee he participated in makings of the work draft of the Statute of Marine and Water Property, Ports and Harbors and in drafting the proposals of the 2004 Maritime Code for the purposes of Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications. For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs he prepared the materials for confirmation (ratification) of the Protocol of the Convention on the Bill of Lading (Visby rules).

As a representative of the Republic of Croatia he participated, in 1995 in the work of the Legal Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London, and in 1996 (April-May) he participated as a representative of Croatia on the Maritime Diplomatic Conference held in London.

As president of the Croatian Society of Maritime Law and a member registrar of the International Maritime Committee (CMI) he participated in the work of that international organization at its conferences in Brussels, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, Paris, Venice and the Sidney.

In his work he was also tied to the study of jurisprudence (in 1970 passed the bar exam), so he cooperated with the High Commercial Court in Zagreb as a judge juror. He also participated as an arbitrator in domestic and foreign arbitrations before the Arbitration Court in Zagreb.

As a scholar of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation he spent a total of over two years on study trips to Cologne, Goettingen and Hamburg, and as a member of the Governing Board of the Croatian Humboldt Club he has organized a monthly lectures of our members in Zagreb.

He was a member of the Croatian Society of International Law (represented the Society in August 1996 on the ILA's conference in Helsinki), and a member of Lawyers Club of Zagreb, where he actively participated as a lecturer at the regular stands.

 

Some of his most important work:

 

1. Vanugovorna odgovornost poduzetnika nuklearnog broda za nuklearne štete (Ph. D. disertation), Zagreb, 1964.

 2. Saobraćajno pravo - Opšte ograničenje odgovornosti u plovidbenom pravu (str. 136-149.), Redakcija: S. Carić, Beograd, 1979.

 3. Fizička zaštita nuklearnog materijala, Zagreb, 1980.

 4. Odgovornost za nuklearnu štetu, Zagreb, 1980.

 5. Odgovornost za štetu bez krivnje u Zakonu o pomorskoj i unutrašnjoj plovidbi, Split, 1980.

 6. Zakon o pomorskoj i unutrašnjoj plovidbi. S napomenama i komentarskim bilješkama, Narodne novine, 1981., with co-authors: V. Brajković, I. Čolović, B. Jakaša, N. Katičić, E. Pallua, V. Tomašić, S. Triva

 7. Bankruptcy of ship operators in Yugoslav law (koautor: M. Dika), The Hague - Zagreb - Ghent colloquium on the Law of international trade; Session 7, 1987.

 8. Prilagođavanje djelatnosti pomorskog brodarstva evropskim integracijama, Zagreb, 1992.

  

Articles:

 

1. Suvremeni razvoj pomorskog privatnog prava (suautor: E. Pallua), Prinosi za poredbeno proučavanje prava i međunarodno privatno pravo, Zagreb, 1974., vol. 7, pg. 1-72

 2. Komentar Hamburških pravila (suautor: E. Pallua), Uporedno pomorsko pravo i pomorska kupoprodaja, Zagreb, 1978, vol.  78, pg. 2-96.

 3. Koje promjene donose nova pravila o međunarodnom željezničkom prijevozu (COTIF 1980.), Uporedno pomorsko pravo i pomorska kupoprodaja, Zagreb, 1982., vol.  95, pg. 32-40.

 4. Izmjena međunarodnih sporazuma o naknadi štete uslijed zagađivanja mora naftom (komentar), Uporedno pomorsko pravo i pomorska kupoprodaja, Zagreb, 1984, vol.  103-104., pg. 503-514.

 5. Odgovornost zračnog prijevoznika za štete na robi, Savjetovanje iz oblasti kopnenog transporta, Beograd, 1985, pg. 1-15.

 6. Nova Konvencija Ujedinjenih naroda o odgovornosti poduzetnika prijevoznih terminala u međunarodnoj trgovini, Uporedno pomorsko pravo - Comparative maritime law, zagreb, 1992., vol. 1-2, pg. 19-32.