Learning from German law: New legal centre opens in Skopje

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Published: October 1, 2026

In the course of legal reform and EU harmonisation, every country must find its own path. However, drawing on tried-and-tested models can facilitate subsequent implementation and help avoid missteps. German law is particularly well-suited to this purpose: as a traditional continental European legal system, it boasts a comprehensive and well-documented body of case law.

This realisation has led to various initiatives in the Western Balkans to study German law and to draw on its experiences for their own legal development. Against this backdrop, a dedicated centre for German Law has now been opened in Skopje in the presence of judges from the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia, representatives from academia and students. To this end, the Faculty of Law at the ‘Justinianus Primus’ University of Law and IRZ organised a symposium on the topic of ‘Minimum legal standards: the example of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia’. This was initiated by Prof. Dr Aleksander Spasov, who has been collaborating with IRZ for some time.

In her address, Ambassador Petra Drexler emphasised that knowledge of German law could make a significant contribution to the harmonisation of EU law. Lively discussions followed the presentations by the former Federal Constitutional Court judge Prof. Dr Udo Steiner and the Constitutional Court judge of North Macedonia, Prof. Dr Ana Pavlovska Daneva  As North Macedonia does not have its own law governing the Constitutional Court, a recent development in Germany attracted particular attention: provisions safeguarding the independence of the Federal Constitutional Court have recently been incorporated into the Basic Law.