On 23 June 2022, the IRZ introduced its new educational film, “How judges can accelerate civil proceedings through active procedural management and supporting settlements” at a two-day event on civil procedure law at the Judicial Training Centre in Montenegro.
The film gives judges a direct insight into German legal practice and therefore starts with a recording of an introduction to the facts of the case and the matters at issue and the subsequent successful settlement negotiations in a German Civil court.
The overlayed texts and translations of the pertinent Sections 138 and 278 of the German Civil Code during the film’s opening and closing credits round off the film’s informational content.
In the ensuing interviews, a Professor of Civil Law from Serbia as well as Macedonian and Montenegrin participants in earlier working visits to Germany share their personal impressions of German legal practice and its implementability in their own national legislation.
The discussion after the presentation of the film showed that films like this are an excellent means of stimulating intensive professional discussions.
Project support from the Foreign Office enables the IRZ educational film to be made. The following were all involved in the project: Cologne Regional Court, the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors, “Pavel Shatev” in North Macedonia and the centre for training judges and public prosecutors in Montenegro.
The IRZ will use the educational film in future events and has also made it available on its homepage at “Media centre – Training films” in order to reach as large an audience as possible. The film is also available in Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian and Macedonian.
A new translation of the German Criminal Code into Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian has been published by the IRZ, with an introduction written by the Research Director at the Institute for Eastern Law in Regensburg, Prof. Dr Dres. h.c. Friedrich-Christian Schroeder.
The book is part of a series of publications with translations of German laws into the languages of the partner states in South Eastern Europe, which are intended to strengthen the role of German law as an orientation law in legal transformation. The Minister of Justice of Northern Macedonia, Prof. Dr. Nikola Tupancheski, himself a professor of criminal law and a member of the local expert commission for the reform of the criminal code until he took office, recently confirmed the important role of the publication.
The translations are not only used to inform groups of experts working on draft reform laws, but are also used by scholars researching on comparative law, practitioners working across borders and students. They are also a popular tool for learning German legal terminology.
The 14th National Anti-Corruption Conference was held in Podgorica (Montenegro) from 9-10 December 2021 as a hybrid event.
The main organiser was the non-governmental organisation "Network for the Strengthening of the Non-Governmental Sector MANS". Other co-organisers were the IRZ and the EU delegation, the embassy of Italy, the Netherlands and the United States and the NGOs "The National Endowment for Democracy (NED)" and the "Balkan Tender Watch Coalition”.
The Prime Minister of the country, Zdravko Krivokapić, and various foreign ambassadors opened the event with words of welcome; a gesture that underpinned the importance attached to the anti-corruption conference.
The first day of the event was dedicated to the topic "Financing of political parties and elections", the second day to the confiscation of property. There were various panels on both topics, which brought together national experts and representatives of NGOs, the OSCE and the Council of Europe. An exchange of experiences also took place between international practitioners.
The IRZ has supported the conference for roughly five years, and Senior Public Prosecutor Dr. Gunnar Greier, who is also a lecturer at the University of Cologne and a specialist author of books on the subject, has worked as an expert in various international projects, and reported on the German experience with confiscation of assets for the IRZ.
In addition to the constitutionality of regulations on the confiscation of assets, the discussion also focused on the question of how appropriate investigative units can be organised in a relatively small state with limited human resources. In connection with corruption in general, some of the participants also stated that the Montenegrin rules on an understanding in criminal procedural law had meant that the facts of the case were not clarified, particularly in cases where prominent persons were suspected of corruption.
This year too, the event attracted broad national and international media interest, and was also broadcast via Facebook.
