More than 30 members of judicial profession, including judges, prosecutors, lawyers, legal scholars, civil society activists and journalists have taken part in the online discussion titled Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?. The discussion elaborated on the four new publications containing standard-setting documents in the area of the rule of law developed by various Council of Europe bodies and through jurisprudence of European supranational courts.
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.
The seminar Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? provided a platform for reflections on some of the key issues in the field of the rule of law, building on the standards set out in the newly translated documents. The two professions that are in the primary focus of the publications were represented by judge Snežana Bjelogrlić on behalf of the Judges’ Association of Serbia and Lidija Komlen Nikolić, on behalf of the Prosecutors’ Association of Serbia.
The meeting was opened by Tobias Flessenkemper, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade, who noted in his opening remarks that the value of these publications lies in the fact that they are drafted by representatives of judiciaries from each Council of Europe’s member state. He expressed hope that the debate would provide an additional impetus to the much-awaited justice sector reform and that the publications would become a useful tool in these efforts for members of the Serbian judiciary.
Dragoljub Popović, former judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Serbia, spoke on the importance of jurisprudence of European supranational courts on the rule of law. He stressed that there is a practical need to look for inspiration in those: “Governments of the Republic of Serbia have, for many years now, been persevering on the same political line, and that is accession to the European Union. In order to join the EU, we must adopt the acquis communautaire, of which the jurisprudence of the two European courts is a significant part. Our road to Brussels goes through Strasbourg and Luxembourg.”
Should you be interested in receiving copies of the publications by mail, please communicate your postal address to [email protected] by the end of January 2021 the latest.
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.
