Sanja Ljubetić

• Sanja was born in Rijeka in 1982 and graduated form the Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka in 2006. After graduating, for the next 7 years she was employed in a law office where she gained the experience in working in all legal branches. In 2009, she passed the Croatian bar exam and on the same year was  appointed as Permanent court interpreter for English language. Since 2013 she has worked as a legal representative in ACI d.d., with a special interest in dealing with the issues that the company faces with regard to maritime domain and the concession system. Parallel to work in ACI d.d. she enrolled the Postgraduate Specialist Studies in Commercial Law and Company Law and then a Doctoral programme in legal sciences, in the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, where she is currently writing her Doctoral thesis on the subject Property rights issues regarding the (not) registration of maritime domain in the land register.

   

   

  Construction of buildings and other infrastructure objects in the ports of nautical tourism

   

  Key words: buildings, infrastructure objects, maritime domain, port of nautical tourism, concession, sub-concession

  The construction of buildings and other infrastructure objects on the maritime domain, given its legal nature as a common good, can only be achieved through the concession regime. The Building Act, apart from the concession contract, does not foresee any other way of proving the legal interest for issuance of a building permit for real estate for which property rights cannot be acquired. Therefore, a potential investor proves the legal interest with a concession contract for the economic exploitation of a maritime domain or a concession contract for the special use of maritime domain. Concession is explicitly stipulated by law as a contractual right, and the very content of that institute, from the nautical tourism point of view, stands for the use of maritime domain, with or without using existing buildings and other structures and with or without constructing new buildings and other structures on the maritime domain. In the Physical Planning Act the term infrastructure includes municipal, transport, energy, water, maritime, communication, electronic communication and other buildings intended for managing other types of manufactured and natural goods. Ports of nautical tourism, though in their essence exist in symbiosis with individual micro location, by a normative definition, in the constructional and functional view, represent a unified complex, which means that from the construction aspect they have to be seen as a unique structure. The question of the construction of buildings and other objects within the concession scope of a nautical tourism port usually comes up in the case of the construction of a new port or in the event of a complete reconstruction of the port as a necessity trough the duration of the concession, due to the detrition of superstructure and infrastructure or the need to increase existing capacity. Cost-effectiveness of such an investment, must be given in a feasibility study, whose content depends on the scope of the project. Regardless of whether there is a new port of nautical tourism being built or the existing one is being reconstructed, it is most likely to take some time for the concessionaire to get a permit to commence construction. Within the documentation that has to be included when applying for issuance of the building permit, special importance must be given to the written consent for construction made by the concession grantor. Taking into account the legislative changes in the field of construction regulation over the past few years, the question arises as to whether it will be sufficient to request such consent with a conceptual design as the basis for issuing a location permit or the main design as a basis for obtaining a construction permit. When considering the issue of construction of buildings and other infrastructure objects in the ports of nautical tourism, attention should also be paid to the fact that the construction of certain buildings and infrastructure objects, in particular the water supply, sewage and energy networks, is explicitly stated as category of special use of maritime domain, the concession for which is granted in a procedure that is different from the procedure for concession for the economic exploitation of the maritime domain. Therefore, the question arises whether the concessionaire of a nautical tourism port is authorized to carry out works involving the construction of buildings and infrastructure objects, such as water supply, sewage and energy networks and under what conditions. Considering the existing arrangement of concession relations in the Concessions Act, the Maritime Domain and Seaports Act and subordinate legislation, a number of possible models will be considered through which third parties outside the concession contract could be involved in the construction of buildings and infrastructure objects as water supply, sewage and energy networks. One of the possibilities that is considered in order to meet the required infrastructure conditions, is changing the concession boundaries to enable the granting of a concession for the special use of maritime domain to third parties. In particular, the possible application of the sub-concession model is analyzed, as one of the normative solutions to transfer certain rights and obligations from the concession contract, belonging to the concessionaire, to a third party, and the essential content of such contract is thoroughly considered due to the lack of detailed legal regulation of the said institute.