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.
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.
Participants at the conference on continental European law held in Belgrade on 2 December 2022. Serbia
The work of IRZ aims to further develop the legal systems in its partner countries in a way that is user-friendly.
“Hybrid” laws with regulations that exploit a range of legal traditions, e.g. the common law and continental European law, are overwhelming the legal practitioners. This is one of the main problems of legal transformation.
IRZ highlights this fact every year with a conference on continental European law organised jointly with the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, which was held on 2 December 2022 as a face-to-face event for the first time since a break of three years.
The event focused on presentations by constitutional judges Prof Dr Milan Škulic and Prof Dr Milos Živković, which were also published in the magazine “Kontinentalno pravo: časopis za održiv i skladan razvoj prava (KoPra)” / “Continental Law: Journal for Sustainable and Appropriate Legal Development”.
In his lecture, Professor Škulić presented the attitude of various legal systems in continental European law and common law to polygraphs (“lie detectors”) in a comparative legal manner. He explained that these devices only detect physical reactions, which are often exhibited by people who are lying. However, these devices cannot recognise the truth content in a statement. The results of such examinations cannot be used as a free judicial assessment of evidence in legal systems that have no legal stipulation on the use of polygraphs in criminal proceedings, as “irrational methods of any kind” are also excluded here in the context of gathering evidence.
Professor Živković’s lecture dealt with the proof of property rights in rem. He highlighted the differences between continental European law and common law and explored the rules of the different systems. He emphasised that these systems work most effectively within the legal tradition that produced them There are limits to what can be “transplanted”. Overall, he assessed the continental European land register as the safest and most functional system, but the introduction of such entailed the highest costs. He also pointed out the implementation deficits in the relevant reforms in Serbia.
The participants included constitutional judges, presidents of courts, scientists and students, who all listened to the presentations with great interest. There was lively discussion and commentary, with calls for more attention to be paid to the traditions of their own countries in the legal transformation.
