The paper discusses the legal aspects of culling wolves as a measure to prevent
serious harm, with a focus on (recent) case law of the Court of Justice of the
European Union regarding the conditions under which culling is permissible.
It analyses three recent decisions of the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Spatial Planning regarding the wolf culls. This analysis considers the Guidelines
for Proving the Conditions for the Removal of Wolves from the Wild by
Culling, aiming to determine whether administrative practice has changed or
improved following the latest relevant decisions of the Administrative Court
and the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia. The article also examines
various legal quandaries presented the current regulation on the wolf
removal in the Regulation on Protected Wildlife Species. It questions the compatibility
of these regulations with the principle of legality and debates the suitability
of enacting the measure of wolf removal through a by-law, specifically
a government decree.
Keywords: Habitats Directive, conditions for wolf culling, prevention of serious
damage to property, Regulation on protected wildlife species, permit,
principle of legality, precautionary principle.