Updated: October 15, 2012
Following the establishment of the Working group for drafting the amendments and supplements of the Law on seats and territorial jurisdiction of courts and public prosecutions in September, tasked to complete the working text of the Law until 15 October, a series of the working meetings have been organised in the period October 1 until October 10.
The Working group has had four working meetings in Judicial Academy and Commercial court in Belgrade, even though six meetings were initially planned. The reason for the cancellation of two meetings lies in the absence of the members of the Working group, who had retreated outside Belgrade from October 11 until October 17, when they have completed their task and drafted working text of the Law.
All meetings were attended by the Working group, composed out of professors, judges, public prosecutors, lawyers, representatives of Judicial Academy. Apart from the Working group, the meetings have usually been attended also by national and international legal experts and practitioners from High Judicial Council, State Prosecutorial Council, and Delegation of the European Union in Serbia, OSCE, USAID, World Bank, US Embassy.
On the first working meeting, held on 1 October, the initial data, crucial for the analysis of court and prosecutors network, were presented by the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration and discussed by the participants. The participants have analysed various initiatives for the changes of the court network, the need and possibility for the specialisation of courts and the elementary and supplementary criteria for the evaluation of the need for courts and public prosecutors in the Republic of Serbia. The crucial outcome of this meeting was an agreement on the criteria for the evaluation.
During the second meeting, held on 5 October, the acting presidents of the Appellate courts in Belgrade and Novi Sad presented and elaborated on their proposals for the new court network in these territories. Following the discussion, criteria, accepted on previous meeting, have been applied on some examples, using specific data provided by the Ministry.
On the third and fourth meeting, held on 9 and 10 October, the initial proposal for the network of courts in the jurisdiction of the Appellate court in Novi Sad was drafted. The proposals for the network of courts in the jurisdiction of other three Appellate courts have been subsequently drafted, using the model of proposal of network of courts in the jurisdiction of the Appellate court in Novi Sad.
As a result of the above referred meetings, the Working group has succeeded in completing its task, accepted the criteria and principles for the evaluation and drafted the working text of the Law on seats and territorial jurisdiction of courts and public prosecutions. These documents will be publicly discussed on the round table scheduled for 31 October 2012.
