Career
He earned a doctorate in law in Graz. As a local leading politician, he fought for three decades for the region"s Croats renaissance, which he continued in Zagreb, particularly as the ban of Croatia. From 1900 to 1915 he was an attorney in Pula.
In 1915 he moved his practice to Zagreb.
During the upheaval of fall 1918 he was trustee of the National Council in Istria. With the annexation of Istria to the Kingdom of Italy after the first world war, he settled in Zagreb.
From February to December 1920 Laginja was ban of Croatia within the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He was dismissed by the cabinet of Milenko Radomar Vesnić on December 11, 1920 after allowing a rally by Croatian Peasant Party politician Stjepan Radić in Zagreb on December 8.
He was selected to the Constitutional Assembly which he resigned on June 1, 1921 along with ten others issuing a statement against centralization and for a federalized country.
After this he withdrew from public life.