Minister of Education of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Dr Rašid Hadžović, welcomes participants
Minister of Education of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Dr Rašid Hadžović, welcomes participants
Bosnia and Herzegovina

The tenth international conference “Family Law Days”, organised jointly by IRZ and the law faculty of Djemal-Bjedić University, took place in Mostar on 20-21 October 2022.

The event was attended by participants from several Yugoslav successor states, including EU member states Croatia and Slovenia. Participants also included researchers, teachers and practitioners from the judiciary and the relevant authorities. There were members of philosophical and political science faculties, which emphasised the interdisciplinary character of the event.

Regional, interdisciplinary, sustainable

The regional approach of the conference is particularly important due to the closely intertwined and relatively small successor states of Yugoslavia. Family law issues therefore often have points of contact with neighbouring states. The literature and published case law on the subject are scant.

All the states face a further challenge of adapting their family law to current biomedical and social developments.

In addition, the requirements of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the EU must be observed.

As in previous years, the 30 or so papers presented at the event will be documented in conference proceedings to ensure the results are available to a large audience and are thus particularly sustainable. More than 200 works on family law have been published to date over the ten years in which this series of events have been held.

High interest from the media

The event attracted great interest not only from experts, but also from the general public. Bosnia and Herzegovina's largest online portal reported extensively on the conference and emphasised that the harmonisation of EU legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was progressing “at a snail's pace” and that the legislature still had numerous tasks to fulfil.

In organising the conference, IRZ is making an important contribution to reminding us of the need for further action, even when there is little enthusiasm for reform, and the IRZ has also created the framework conditions for the appropriate legislative initiatives.