Odredbi

Odredbi is a term used in South Slavic legal language, referring to a provision or clause within a law, regulation, contract, or other normative text. It is the dative (and sometimes locative) inflected form of odredba, a feminine noun whose core meaning is a stipulation, clause, or rule. The nominative plural of the word is odredbe.

In legal drafting and scholarly writing, odredba denotes an individual provision, and odredbi appears in oblique cases. Common phrases include prema odredbi (according to the provision) and u skladu s odredbom (in accordance with the provision). For example, one might read: Prema odredbi člana 5. Zakona, zaposlenici are eligible for benefits. The form odredbi is frequently encountered in sentences that require dative or locative case endings, while odredbe remains the nominative plural.

Usage across languages and regions: the word is standard in Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian legal texts and is also found in counterparts in Montenegro and other multilingual contexts within the former Yugoslavia. Distinct from odredba in singular, odredbi functions as an inflected form used to indicate the provision’s relationship to other elements in a sentence.

Etymology: odredba derives from the verb odrediti, meaning to determine or set, with the noun form indicating a determined clause or provision within a regulatory framework.

See also: odredba, zakon, pravilnik, ugovor, pravna dokumentacija.