IRZ and project partners speak the same language
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- Published: December 16, 2025
The EU is calling on the candidate countries in the Western Balkans to increase the efficiency of their judicial systems. This can be achieved in various ways, namely through organizational changes, legal reforms, and changes in behavior within the judiciary. However, not least because of the language barriers between German experts on the one hand and their partners on the other, taking stock of these areas can be relatively time-consuming.
The situation is different when experts from the German judiciary who are familiar with the language and cultures of the Western Balkan states due to their family background are called upon.
For this reason, Judge Andrea Podhraski from the Higher Regional Court of Dresden traveled to the Supreme Court of Montenegro for several days on behalf of IRZ. She is fluent in Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian and was thus able to take stock of the court's working methods.
In addition to many direct conversations with colleagues and other court staff and attending court hearings, Ms. Podhraski also inspected court files. The absence of language barriers not only made the exchange faster and more efficient, but also allowed for the immediate inclusion of regulations and written documents, for example.
Based on these findings, IRZ's further activities in support of the court will be defined in close consultation with the President of the Supreme Court, Ms. Valentina Pavličić.
The project area covers the Western Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia and is looking for judges, public prosecutors, notaries, and lawyers with working knowledge of the language of one of these countries for short-term assignments in Germany. Interested parties are requested to send a brief expression of interest to
