The only laws that might be of interest from Croatia are the
Law on Coat of Arms, Flag, Anthem and Presidential Flag and
Sache, and several (3, if I recall correctly) consecutive laws on
civil sea navigation considering civil ensigns and some official
ensigns on police vessels. There is also a number of other laws
that mention flags, but mostly only in connection with when some
official building should hoist the flag or when it is included on
some official forms.
All these laws are available on line at <www.nn.hr/search/iaquery.exe>.
Put zastava as the search word. Unfortunately, the
on-line version doesn't have images. Zeljko Heimer,3 January 1998
Here
there is an English version of the Law on the Coat-of-Arms,
the Flag, and the National Anthem of the Republic of Croatia, and
on the Flag and Sash of the President of the Republic of Croatia.
I think the Web site is an official one for the Government of
Croatia. Jan Oskar Engene, 6 January 1998
I forgot about that one. There should be also the English
version of the Constitution of Croatia there, which have certain
provision on the flag (but I haven't checked it lately). The site
is really the site of the Government of Croatia, and I guess that
the translation is made by someone who knows what he is doing (or
should I?, look what we got with translations of
"purple" in Chuvashia).
However, I took to the comparison of the two texts. While I am no
lawyer and couldn't guarantee some tricks of that trade, here are
some comments of the English text there compared to Croatian
original:
to be pinpointing, in Art. 1 where it stands "of
the Croatian President" should be "of
the President of the Republic of Croatia", and
the term is translated elsewhere.
Art. 7 contains detailed description of the coat of arms.
The translation is very precise. It uses terms
"blue" and "navy blue" for the two
different shades of blue that are used in Croatian
version (plava, modra), though I don't
think anyone in Croatia could really say which shade is
supposed by which of the two terms. Usually, it is taken
that "navy blue" (modra) is darker then
"blue" (plava)
Art. 7. par. 4. "A golden rim borders the entire
coat of arms." This whole sentence have no
counterpart in Croatian text. It must have came here by
mistake.
Art. 8. par. 4. "representative and members of
government of the Republic..." should be "representatives
and members of the Presidency of the Republic...".
The Presidency was the highest body of the Republic since
1974, but was soon abolished in new Croatia. It is
mentioned here, I guess, because it was still in theory
working when the law was passed. English text seems to
"correct" this.
Art. 10 describes the flag. "three bands of
colour" read in original "three colours"
without indication of the bands, but since latter in the
same paragraph it is stated that the colours are ordered
horizontally, it doesn't make much difference.
Art 11. It seems that one line was missed and the article
should read: Art.11. The flag of the Republic of
Croatia shall be displayed: 1. permanently on all the
buildings of the state bodies 2. on State holidays 3.
during mourning, at half-mast 4. on other occasions if so
regulated by law. The flag of the Republic of Croatia
shall be flown by ships and other maritime and inland
navigation vessels. Details concerning all the above
shall be regulated by the Government of the Republic of
Croatia.
While Art 11. proscribes where and when the flag must be,
Art. 12 states where it could be. It seems that the
missing statement of the former was by error included
here. Also a part of the original text is missing and the
whole article should read: Art.12. The flag of the
Republic of Croatia may be flown: 2. during public
meetings (political, scientific, cultural-artistic, sport
and others) held in Republic of Croatia, according to the
rules and habits of usage on such meetings 3. on other
occasions in accordance with the provisions of the law.
Art 13. "vertically on the speaker's platform"
is longer in original "vertically on the table,
the speaker's platform, or some other honorary place"
Art 14. "should honour it (stand and salute etc.)"
is in original "should honour it in the usual way
(stand, salute etc.)"
Art. 16 brings the text of the Anthem. The English
version is not a literary translation, but it retains the
meaning very faithfully.
Art. 24. par. b) "on any vehicle used by the
President", in Croatian text the word used for
"vehicle" bears connotation of not only a land
vehicle but also vessel or air ship etc. I am not sure if
the same is understood in english.
Art 30. declares that photographs and images of the flag,
coat of arms etc. are also under jurisdiction of this
law. In Croatian original if I would be asked to
translate it I would rather say something like "Graphical
representations of the coat of arms and the flag of the
Republic of Croatia, and the flag and the sache of the
President of the Republic of Croatia are part of this law".
And I would suspect that together with the law there
comes these representations as addition. However, the
English text gives rise to the opinion that this is not
what it was meant. Hmh...
Art 31. proscribes that the Law comes to effect with it's
issuing in the official gazette (Narodne Novine).
I don't have the date at hand. However, the date under
the Law, when it was adopted in the Parliament is 21
December 1990 (in all three houses that were parts of it
at the time). On the same date it was proclaimed by the
President (as it was usual at the time, each law after
adoption in Parliament also had to be proclaimed by
President).
Zeljko Heimer, 8 January 1998
The Contitution describes the flag quite
"lapidarly":
"Article 11
The coat-of-arms of the Republic of Croatia is the historic
Croatian coat-of-arms whose base consists of 25 alternating red
and white (argent) fields. The flag of the Republic of Croatia
consists of three colors: red, white and blue, with the historic
Croatian coat-of-arms in the center. The anthem of the Republic
of Croatia is ``Our Beautiful Homeland" (Lijepa naša
domovino). The description of the historic Croatian coat-of-arms
and flag, the text of the anthem, and the use of these and other
state symbols shall be regulated by law."
The text of the Law on the flag (etc.) only determines the
complicated design of the coat of arms (which is hardly the
"historical coat of arms" from the Constitution in the
exact sence - but obviously the legislator mean what he meant
when writing Constitution and knew what he meant latter in the
Law).
For full text of the Constitution in English see: <www.usud.hr/html/the_constitution_of_the_republ.htm>
and for the Law on the flag see: <www.vlada.hr/english/law.html>, Zeljko Heimer, 16 November 2002
As you already know, I am passionately searching trough the
laws and regulations of Croatia to find some flags, but I am not
getting any, at least considering the flags that would be most
interesting. However, I have found regulations from 1991 that
describe a temporarily used signals on boats of the harbour
police since the old Yugoslav were obsolete and new weren't
defined yet.
In any case, the Regulations on Boats (Pravilnik o camcima,
NN, 1097, 1991 of 11 August 1991) describe the use of two
administrative signals. Article 63:
"A boat for public purposes owned by the harbour
police must hoist on the bow the administrative signal,
that is blue, proportions 1:1. In the middle of the
signal there are two crossed white anchors inscribed in
an imaginary rectangle of length of 3/8 of the length of
the signal and height 1/3 of signal height.
A boat for administrative purposes owned by the
harbour police must hoist on the bow the administrative
signal that is white a pennant of triangular shape in
proportions 2:1. In the middle of the pennant there
should be the sign from line 2 art. 58 of these
regulations."
The Art. 58 defines registration numbers, so the sign consists
of the registration number, a digraph for the harbour and the
number 3 (that was the identification number for Croatia in
former Yugoslavia).
The best part for the end: Art. 62 says:
"A boat for public purposes must hoist on the
stern or some other convinient place during the daylight
(from sunrise till sundown) the flag of the Republic of
Croatia. Other boats also can hoist the flag of the
Republic of Croatia.
The size of the flag is 0.46(sic!)x0.80 meters and
must be in good condition."
That would mean that between 1991 and 1992 the ensign of
Croatia was 23:40 in proportions! In 1992, of course, the new
regulations define ensigns to be 2:3. The same regulations define
the new administrative signals. Zeljko Heimer, 28 April 1997
