The rule of law and the judicial system: court delays as a barrierr to accession

An efficient system for the protection of civil and human rights is essential for the achievement of the ideals that are a precondition for joining the European Union (EU). This paper analyses the origins of the crisis of the Croatian judicial system and the factors that have brought the length of court proceedings into the centre of professional and political debates. Strategies for accelerating civil proceedings featured in current attempts at reform are presented, with an emphasis on the ongoing procedural reforms in litigation, enforcement and bankruptcy proceedings. At the end doubts are expressed about whether it is possible to make any important advances with the operations planned. Without an efficient judiciary, however, it is impossible to have a complete transition to the model of the democratic liberal state, and a dysfunctional judicial system can bring the implementation of economic reforms into question as well. To this extent, then, a thoroughgoing reform is of first-rate importance for the creation of the preconditions necessary for EU membership.