More than 50 members of the judicial profession, including Serbian Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of Cassation justices, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, legal scholars, civil society activists and journalists had an opportunity to listen to speakers from the Serbian academia who delivered an online presentation on the latest publications containing standard-setting documents in the area of the rule of law developed by the Council of Europe and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union. Adhering to these standards is essential for ensuring the rule of law in Serbia is protected and is equally important in the context of Serbia’s EU accession process.
In order to further instigate knowledge-based policy making, the Council of Europe partnered with the Belgrade-based Institute of Comparative Law in bringing about four publications with texts previously mostly unavailable in Serbian language. The first two publications contain translations of all opinions of the Consultative Council of European Judges and Consultative Council of European Prosecutors. Another publication contains selected recommendations of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers and certain Venice Commission Opinions, while the last one features relevant judgements of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Speaking at today’s event, professor Vesna Rakić Vodinelić, retired professor of the Union University’s School of Law in Belgrade, emphasised that work remains to be done to support strengthening the rule of law and to increase awareness about human rights and their protection in Serbia. She recalled the importance of these standard-setting texts being available in Serbian and expressed hope that they would be taken into consideration by Serbian legal professionals in their future work.
In the context of presentation of the four publications to the legal professionals and the wider public, an additional online seminar will be held on 15 December. Should you be interested in receiving copies of the publications by mail, please communicate your postal address to [email protected].
The event was held within the framework of the project “Strengthening the Judiciary Reform Process in Serbia” which is implemented by the Council of Europe, with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.
