(1187) PROJECT TRANSFORMACIJA BROUGHT INNOVATIONS TO LOCAL COMMUNITY: THE CASE OF CROATIA

摘要

Primary issues of the project were to strengthen the civil society organisations regarding their use of legal tools and best practices concerning the participation of the public and cross-sectoral cooperation in responsible management of natural resources; to encourage the institutions responsible for management of natural resources to work transparently and implement cross-sectoral cooperation; and to encourage the public to participate, which would be a basis for open management and fighting against corruption in the management of natural resources. One of the main results was establishing the Green Legal Clinic of the Faculty of Law in Osijek with the goal of providing necessary and appropriate legal protection for all citizens in the field of nature and environment protection. The Green Legal Clinic has a dual purpose. On the one hand, through participation in the work of the Green Legal Clinic, students included in its work gain immediate experience concerning the way in which legal institutes function in their social context; deepen and problematize knowledge on the application of legal regulations in the legal practice; and acquire practical skills needed for recognizing a problem, selecting and processing the case, taking instructions from the clients and mentors and selecting the best strategy to represent their interests. On the other hand, the Green Legal Clinic should participate in the integral system of providing free legal help for people who have a justified interest in it, and who cannot, as a rule, receive it from other sources or who could receive it only by means of utilizing the resources that are essential for supporting themselves or for supporting the persons who they are legally bound to support. In that sense, the goal of the Green Legal Clinic is that students, according to all standards of profession and professional legal ethics, in a certain number of cases provide legal help, thus contributing to the system of provision of legal help in the public interest, designed for the purpose of realization of the constitutional principles of equality of all before the law; exercising rights to access courts and other bodies deciding on the rights of citizens and legal persons; and receiving a fair trial within a reasonable deadline. Being an innovation in the field of local community, this clinic will have a positive influence on further development of legal culture in Republic of Croatia by opening a dialogue on legal and social problems and necessary reforms in the public sector; contribute to the development of students’ awareness regarding the value and importance of working in the public interest; promote volunteering and pro bono work in order to protect the especially vulnerable social groups and people who cannot equally exercise the right to legal protection as an inevitable and necessary engagement in Croatian society; improve legal education by acquiring practical skills such as working in a team, encouraging personal initiative, joint decision making and working with clients; it will contribute in a palpable manner to the system of free legal protection through processing of cases; and aim the public, legal and political activities towards development of instruments for protection of rights that are endangered at a general and system level.