German-speaking IRZ alumni from four countries in Belgrade

Participants of the alumni workshop in Belgrade.
Participants of the alumni workshop in Belgrade.
Serbia

After a three-year break, the annual workshop of German-speaking IRZ alumni took place in Belgrade from 8 to 10 December 2023 with a focus on "News from German law". This year the event was funded by the publishing house C.H. Beck, Munich.

The workshop offered former participants of various IRZ activities organised in German (e.g. work shadowing for various legal professions, courses in German legal language, summer school in German law, (former) accompanying studies in German law at the Faculty of Law in Sarajevo) an occasion to learn about current developments in the legal system in Germany and in the participating countries and to exchange ideas with each other in German. The participating lawyers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia also had the opportunity to expand their own regional networks.

This year's event focused however on presentations in German, which were given by the alumni themselves and by German-speaking researchers (Professor Dr Alexander Spasov, Skopje, Professor Dr Marko Knežević, Novi Sad, Professor Dr Slavko Djordjević, Kragujevac and – via video link – Professor Dr Meliha Povlakić, Sarajevo).Of particular interest to the practising lawyers was the presentation by Dr Veronika Denninger, Managing Director for International Affairs at the German Federal Bar, on the topic of "Current developments in the German legal profession – digitalization of the judiciary, legal tech, demographics".

The participants also received selected German-language legal literature.

They judged the workshop to be a complete success.  

European integration in focus

Die Teilnehmenden am Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte.
Die Teilnehmenden am Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte.
Serbia

Together with the Faculty of Law of the Master's degree programme in European Integration in Belgrade, the IRZ organised a study visit to the European institutions from 10 to 16 December 2023.

The eleven students and one professor visited the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the European Commission in Brussels, the Mission of Montenegro and the Mission of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union and the European External Action Service. (The Master’s degree programme is well known there, as both the Ambassador of Montenegro to the European Union, Petar Marković, and the First Secretary of the Mission of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union, Isidora Mitić, had completed this programme).

In Karlsruhe, the participants visited the Federal Constitutional Court to find out about the working methods and the jurisdiction of Germany's highest constitutional body.

The aim of the project was to familiarise the students with the workings of the European institutions through direct, first-hand discussions.  Topics relating to Serbia's integration into the EU and current proceedings against this country before the European Court of Human Rights were also dealt with in depth. The students also received information about career opportunities in these institutions.

The prominent dialogue partners also included lawyers from the states of the former Yugoslavia, such as the Advocate General at the ECJ Tamara Čapeta from Croatia (who previously also worked on behalf of the IRZ as an expert on the Western Balkans), the Croatian and Slovenian judges at the ECJ Siniša Rodin and Marko Ilešić as well as the Croatian judges at the Court of Justice of the European Union, Vesna Tomljenović and Tamara Perišin.

The study visit was made possible by project funding from the German Federal Foreign Office.

Lecture on legal training in Germany

Attendees at the event.
Attendees at the event.
Serbia

A lecture on the theme “Legal training in Germany” took place on 6 November 2023 at the Kragujevac Faculty of Law in Serbia, which the IRZ used to bolster the Faculty’s existing orientation towards the German training model.

The lecture was given in the Serbian language by the responsible IRZ Project Area Manager, Dr. Stefan Pürner. Approx. 50 professionals attended the event who are already working with the German case method in some events, and were particularly interested in the predominantly written nature of the legal exams, the anonymous assessment of such, the legal grading system and the range of training phases during the internship. Speakers and participants also discussed the influence of artificial intelligence on the content of legal training.

The fact that German law is the subject of such intensive discussions in Kragujevac today is all the more remarkable, as the city was the scene of a mass shooting by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War, in which entire school classes were also executed. The IRZ has supported the university's Faculty of Law for many years, e.g. through donations of expert legal literature, and was honoured for its commitment during the celebrations for the Faculty's 50th anniversary.