Da li je Jugoslavija zaista konfederacija?
Is Yugoslavia Really a Confederation?

Summary/Abstract: The book The System and the Crisis presents a one-sided picture of the Yugoslav federal order. Mirić’s basic approach to the essence of Yugoslav federalism is correct, but his assessment of individual elements of the federal system is incorrect and lopsided. This lack of a balanced view is manifested in his preoccupation with the dangers of the growing status and influence of the republics and autonomous provinces, while overlooking the dangers of a growing unitaristic component in the federal system. In his analysis of the prevailing federal system in the country, Mirić applies a wrong interpretation to certain provisions and principles of the constitution. Firstly, he confuses the concepts of state sovereignty and national sovereignty, overlooking the fact that the 1974 Constitution does not declare in any of its provisions the sovereignty of either the republics and provinces or of the federation. Secondly, he incorrectly claims that no modern federation, with the exception of SFRY, proclaims by its constitution the sovereignty of its constituent units; this is done, for example, by Switzerland and the Soviet Union. Furthermore, he offhandedly describes Yugoslavia as a confederation, while, in effect, every postwar constitutional system was the expression of the will of the sovereign constitutional rule of the federal community, rather than the result of an international treaty. (Thus, e.g., over 90% of the provisions of republican constitutions which regulate all the essential features of the constitutional, or social, system are copied from the federal constitution.) The author criticizes Mirić for ignoring the substance of the federal community and system, pointing to some contradictions in his approach and in his concept of the »republic of labour«.

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