Macedonia - annual report 2017

Details
Published: June 1, 2018
Lecture on Hans Litten for the ELSA (European Law Student´s Association) student group of the Faculty of Law in Skopje
Lecture on Hans Litten for the ELSA (European Law Student´s Association) student group of the Faculty of Law in Skopje

Legal Policy Situation

The Stabilisation and Association Agreement between Macedonia and the EU has been in force since April 2004. The country has had the status of an EU-accession candidate since December 2005. From 2015 to May 2017, the country experienced its deepest post-millennial political crisis, during which tens of thousands of wiretap protocols were discovered. On top of that, there were mass protests. Following the election at the end of 2016, it took until June 2017 for a new social-democrat led coalition government to take office. An EU Senior Experts’ Group, headed by the German lawyer Reinhard Priebe, submitted a detailed and highly critical analysis of the situation of the Macedonian legal system in September 2017, which simultaneously highlights tasks that need to be dealt with in the future.

Overall Concept

The IRZ commenced its activities in Macedonia in the year 2000 in the context of the Stability Pact and increased them considerably in the second half of the decade. Since 2007, the year in which the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors was established, for example, regular joint events have been held. The IRZ expanded the target group of its activities in Macedonia and their sustainability, too, by means of legal publications in the country’s language. The IRZ’s partners in Macedonia include the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors, the Government’s Agent for the European Court of Human Rights and academics from the Faculty of Law in Skopje. It is particularly important to improve the quality of the application of law in Macedonia and to ensure a uniform orientation towards Continental European law, which would also be in line with the Macedonian tradition.

Foci of Activity 2017

Constitutional Law / Human Rights and their Enforceability

  • Participation by a judge of the Macedonian Constitutional Court in the conference on the topic of “Equality before the law in Constitutional Court practice” organised in cooperation with the Montenegrin Constitutional Court in Budva, Montenegro
  • Participation by a judge of the Macedonian Constitutional Court in the conference on the topic of “Constitutional Court protection in criminal law” organised in cooperation with the Serbian Constitutional Court in Zlatibor, Serbia
  • Participation by two judges of the Macedonian Constitutional Court at the regional Constitutional Court in the conference on the topic of “Theory and practice of the independence of constitutional courts” in Jahorina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Fourth and fifth newsletter entitled “Current information on the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to Macedonia” in Macedonian and Albanian

Administration of Justice

  • Publication of the Macedonian European Law Journal “Evropsko pravo”, in cooperation with academics at the Faculty of Law in Skopje
  • Development of the website www.evropsko-pravo.info, from which “Evropsko pravo” as well as other publications in Macedonian and other languages of the region, co-authored by the IRZ, are available for download
  • Participation of a Macedonian legal scholar in a workshop on the topic of “Methods of coming to terms with the past” held in collaboration with the Institute for Eastern European Law of Munich in Munich, Nuremberg and Regensburg
  • Distribution of specialist publications in related languages from the IRZ’s project work to selected project partners
  • Participation by a Macedonian scholar in the interdisciplinary symposium co-organised by the Southeast Europe Association “Legal transformation in South-Eastern Europe using former Yugoslavia as an example: prerequisites, parties involved, failures and successes” in Berlin

Criminal Law and Penitentiary Law

  • Publication of the conference proceedings “Sentencing and the application of alternative measures in Macedonian law” together with the Association for Criminal Law and Criminology

Basic and Further Training

  • Seminars in the training programme of the Judicial Academy in Skopje on the following topics:
    • Consumer Protection based on the amended Consumer Protection Law and other provisions
    • Jurisdiction of the court and applicable law according to the new PIL act
    • Notice of dismissal pending a change of contract pursuant to Article 78 of the Labour Relations Act
  • Participation by a young Macedonian lawyer in the “IRZ German law summer school” in Bonn
  • Lecture on the life and work of Hans Litten, a lawyer persecuted during the National Socialist period (joint event with the student group of the Faculty of Law of the European Law Student’s Association, ELSA) in Skopje
  • Introductory event for the working visit planned for 2018 as part of the project “Supporting young lawyers in Macedonia” on the topic of “Introduction to German law”
  • Participation of Macedonian students in the regional block seminar “Introduction to German law” at the Faculty of Law in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Outlook

In close consultation with the German Embassy in Skopje, the IRZ is currently examining how it can contribute to the judicial reform planned by the new government. There is a perennial related project already in place to support young lawyers in Macedonia, which began in 2017 and will be continued in 2018. Furthermore, the IRZ will keep on cooperating with the Macedonian Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors and continue its series of law publications.