Croatian state right

The Croatian state right (Hrvatsko državno pravo) is a legal concept in Croatian law that represents the entirety of Croatia's rules on the establishment and functioning of government and public administrative bodies. It is also used to argue for Croatia's sovereignty, referring to the legal status of Croatia as an independent polity within the framework of various states throughout its history. Its application is pointed out as evidence of Croatia's continuous statehood since the medieval Kingdom of Croatia. The Croatian state right is listed in the preamble of the modern Constitution of Croatia as a source of the country's sovereignty.

The concept was first introduced in 1830 by Josip Kušević in the context of Croatian national revival. Kušević based the idea on development of town privileges, seeing it as a means of defense against magyarisation. The term was popularised by Janko Drašković in his 1832 Dissertation, and later developed by Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik. Starčević and Kvaternik argued that all people living in Croatia are Croats and that other nations can only exist by nation-building in their own states. Implications of this definition resulted in conflict between Croatian and Serbian nationalism.

Origin of the term
The concept of Croatian state right was proposed and promoted in the 19th century during the Croatian national revival as a means of resistance against magyarisation (assimilation to the Kingdom of Hungary). The term was first applied by Josip Kušević in 1830 as a reference to town privileges. He argued that the regulations constituting the town privileges represented a feudal legal constitution. In 1790, the Sabor (Croatia's parliament) decided that a joint government with the Kingdom of Hungary would better protect Croatia from the threat of Germanisation and from the return of absolutist monarchs like the recently deceased Joseph II. Following that decision, a power struggle developed between the Hungarian and Croatian elites, groups which generally encompassed nobility and more affluent bourgeoisie. Hungarian elites promoted competing claims for a more centralised Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen encompassing Hungary and Croatia. Meanwhile, Croatian elites argued against centralisation, viewing it as a threat to town privileges and municipal rights; they considered the these rights evidence of Croatia's political autonomy, making them critical for the existence of Croatia as a polity.

In the 19th century, Croatian nationalism defined Croatia as a political nation which could be joined by anyone, not relying on ethnicity. Alongside self-determination, the Croatian state right was key to the formation of the Croatian nation. The Croatian state right was referenced by Janko Drašković in the 1832 Dissertation, a manifesto of the Illyrian movement. The concept was elaborated by Ante Starčević, the founder of the Party of Rights. Starčević argued that states form "citizens' states" in which all citizens are equal and the definition of a nation does not include ethnic or religious criteria. Starčević's ideas regarding the Croatian state right and implications on definition of the nation were further developed by Eugen Kvaternik. Starčević and Kvaternik described the state right as belonging to the Croat "political people", defined as medieval nobility and contemporary general public. Building on Starčević's idea that the existence of a state can create its associated nation, the two claimed that there are no other peoples in Croatia other than Croats because existence of other nations can only come about through their right to another, separate political territory. This definition of the Croatian state right created a conflict between Croatian nationalism and Serbian nationalism, as the latter advocated popular sovereignty which would erase borders of previously existing polities with the aim of uniting all Serbs in a single state, including the Serbs of Croatia.

Subsequent applications
In 1917, as Austria-Hungary was facing its dissolution, representatives of South Slavs living in Austria-Hungary introduced the May Declaration to the Imperial Council, unsuccessfully proposing a reform of the monarchy. The declaration cited the concept of Croatian state right as its basis. The Party of Rights lost popularity after the end of World WarI and the creation of Yugoslavia, but the doctrine of the Croatian state right was accepted by Stjepan Radić's Croatian People's Peasant Party, which became the most influential political party among Croats in the interwar period following the 1920 elections.

During World War II, the State Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia (ZAVNOH), established by the Communist Party of Croatia (a branch of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia), was founded as the supreme legislative body of Croatia under the control of the Yugoslav Partisans. In the immediate aftermath of World WarII, ZAVNOH renamed itself the People's Sabor of Croatia (Narodni sabor Hrvatske). The name change was designed to signify the historical continuity of the Croatian legislative body as a representation of Croatia's sovereignty. The modern Constitution of Croatia also references the Croatian state right in its preamble.

Modern definition
As a legal concept, Croatian state right refers to all written and customary rules on the establishment and functioning of government and public administrative bodies in Croatia. It also refers to the legal status of Croatia as a polity within the Kingdom of Hungary after the Pacta conventa, the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary. In Croatian law, application of the Croatian state right is interpreted as evidence of unbroken statehood of Croatia since the medieval Kingdom of Croatia.