IRZ organised two online seminars on commercial law topics together with the Judicial Training Centre (JTC) for judges and public prosecutors in Podgorica:
"The new law on commercial companies and European corporate law” on 19 May 2021 and
"Intellectual property – copyright and related rights" on 20 May 2021.
The background to the first event was the new Companies Act passed in 2020, which initiated a paradigm shift. The previous law followed the Anglo-Saxon model of deregulation, which resulted in many loopholes. This is because in Montenegro, unlike in the US, there is no case law as a supplementary source of law. This has now been taken into account through increased regulatory density.
In copyright law, the legal situation largely corresponds to that in Germany. However, similar to the USA, punitive aspects are also taken into account when sentencing for damages due to copyright infringement, so that much higher damages are often awarded than in the case of pure compensation for a reduction in assets on the part of the injured party.
The speakers at both events were German and Montenegrin judges, as well as professors from Montenegro and Serbia who work in comparative law and have gained extensive research experience in Germany, among other places. This not only enabled an exchange between practising legal experts and academics, but also ensured that the perspectives of different national rights as well as that of European supranational law were covered.
In both events, the speakers presented the participants a wealth of materials, further information and case studies. The intensive discussions and questions afterwards prove the considerable need for training in this area.
On 26 May 2021, a conference on the “Funding of political parties and election campaigns” took place in Podgorica. The hybrid event was organised by the non-governmental organisation MANS (a network for strengthening the NGO sector) in cooperation with the Delegation of the European Union to Montenegro, the British Embassy and IRZ. In addition to participants who had arrived at the venue in compliance with hygiene restrictions, many listeners and also some speakers joined the event online.
The event was opened by:
Aleksa Bečić, President of the Parliament of Montenegro,
Oana-Kristina Popa, Head of the EU Delegation to Montenegro,
Dr. Robert Weber, German Ambassador,
Steve Arrick, Deputy Head of the British Embassy, and
Vanja Čalović Marković, Director of the NGO MANS.
The welcome was followed by two rounds of discussions. In the first round of discussions, delegates from various political parties represented in the Montenegrin parliament discussed the current situation in terms of party and campaign funding in Montenegro, with some irregularities and the need for improvement also being discussed.
Subsequently, foreign experts, including representatives of the OSCE and Transparency International, presented foreign experiences regarding party and election campaign funding.
The German-speaking Czech constitutional judge Prof. Dr. Vojtech Šimiček, who has a doctorate in comparative law on party financing and is a member of the advisory board of the Institute for German and International Party Law in Düsseldorf, spoke on behalf of IRZ. Professor Šimiček, who has also provided international legal advice in other West Balkan countries, presented the legal regulations in Germany as well as in his home country. He worked out the similarities and differences between the two and went into the considerations behind each. He began by noting that internationally, major changes in the legal regulations governing party financing usually had one of two causes, namely the case law of the Constitutional Court or a party financing scandal.
On 14 April 2021, IRZ, together with the Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution at the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro, organised an online seminar on "Mediation in labour disputes". Mediation, as a method of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), makes an important contribution to relieving the judiciary and accelerating proceedings in Montenegro. Supporting Montenegro in this area is also part of the “Joint declaration on legal cooperation” between the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro and the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. The event was primarily aimed at certified mediators and those interested in the topic of "mediation".
The seminar was opened by Marina Lutovac, Director of the Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Dr Stefan Pürner, Head of Section at IRZ. The introductory lecture "Protecting employees in individual labour disputes" was given by Ivan Knežević, a member of staff at the Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution and a specialist in labour disputes. He presented how labour law has developed since Montenegro's independence and as it prepares to join the EU.
The German speaker Martin Michaelis, a mediator and lawyer with over 20 years of experience in the field of alternative dispute resolution, focused on the essential elements of mediation in his presentation and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of mediation as a means of alternative dispute resolution. The IRZ expert also used German practices to explain the use of mediation in labour law. Lively discussions between the participants ensued straight after this lecture.
After a short break, Martin Michaelis divided the participants into small groups to discuss previously defined questions. The results of these discussions were then addressed in a plenary session and recorded on a virtual pinboard. The results showed that there is a requirement for further training for mediators in Montenegro and that mediation in Montenegro needs to gain more acceptance among the population.
The large number of participants, with around 70 people interested in mediation attending, as well as their exceptionally lively participation and numerous proposals from the small group discussions, underline the relevance of the topic for Montenegro.
