State supervision over the local self-government in the Vidovdan Constitution

Abstract

In the process of adopting the Vidovdan Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1921), one of the topical issues was the form of supervision that the state government would exercise over the local self-government. In this article, the author first elaborates on the development of this constitutional document, with specific reference to the constitutional drafts proposed by the governments of Milenko Vesnić and Nikola Pašić, the amendments introduced by the Constitutional Committee, and the adoption of the constitution in the Constituent Assembly on 28 June 1921 (St. Vitus Day). The Vodovdan Constitution was the legal ground for adopting two important legislative acts in April 1922: the Law on General Administration and the Law on Regional and District Self-Governmnent. The author analyzes the constitutional and statutory provisions that regulated the legal position of state authorities in the administrative districts, counties and local self-government bodies, as well as their mutual relations. State supervision over the local self-government activities, primarily at the regional (district) level, has been observed in the context of state supervision over the administrative acts/ documents and local administrative bodies. In particular, the author focuses on the supervision over regional finances, considering not only the importance of these funds for the functioning of the regional self-government but also the restrictions which the regional government was exposed to. The aim of the research is to point out to the legal relations between the central (state) administration and local self-government in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which were initially envisaged in the Vidovdan Constitution and subsequently instituted by the the 1922 Law on Regional and District Self-Government.