Annual Judges' Conference is the main judicial event in Serbia, held traditionally each autumn in Vrnjačka Banja. More than 1,500 judges gather during three working days to discuss the crucial legal and judicial issues which arose during the year. Supreme Court of Cassation hosts the conference, supported by the pool of international donors, among which is also traditionally Multi Donor Trust Fund for Justice Sector Support (MDTF-JSS), administered by the World Bank.
2016 Conference highlights:
This year’s Conference, held between October 9 and 12, was attended by more than 1,300 judges from all Serbian courts, as well as independent judicial professionals such as public notaries, enforcement agents and attorneys. Other guests included foreign judges and prosecutors, diplomats, experts and representatives of the EU Delegation, OSCE, Council of Europe, USAID and US DoJ and other donor organizations and NGOs.
CASE LAW HARMONIZATION
Within this topical session, moderated by MDTF Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Ms. Sonja Prostran, the Court Jurisprudence Specialist, Mr. Milan Bajić, provided short overview including three chapters: ECHR jurisprudence, disputed legal issues and education plan. Court Jurisprudence Specialist noted that case law departments in Serbian courts follow the practice of the Strasbourg court, however, mostly limited to Serbia-related cases, and emphasized that it shall be necessary to spread at least general standards to case-law departments in courts of higher instances. As the step made forward the Supreme Court of Cassation joined the Superior Court Network (in August 2016), a network emerged from the intention of the European Court of Human Rights to interact with the highest courts in member states. Being part of implementing the Protocol 16 (on judicial dialogue), this also contributes to the international reputation of Serbian Supreme Court of Cassation, who stood among the first 18 highest courts that have joined this network, which includes access to intranet and secure webpage launched by ECHR Jurisconsult (case-law department) with the non-public weekly legal analysis on Grand Chamber decisions and the possibility to send a limited number of queries to ECHR Secretariat searching for delivery of legal opinions on the existing case-law.
THE NEW FORMAT OF REPORTING ON WORK OF COURTS
During this session, the MDTF Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Sonja Prostran and MDTF short-term expert, Linn Hamergren, presented the outline of the shortened version of the SCC Annual Report on Work of Courts, to be used for outreach purposes. As noted by the M&E Specialist, this report defines the key performance measurement indicators for the entire Serbian court system, which are in line with CEPEJ guidelines. The report will also highlight the most important and recourses-consuming SCC non-judicial activities, as well as impacts of the new legislation to the work of courts.
COURT AND MEDIATION
This session involved round table focused on alternative dispute resolution. Apart from inter-relations between court, mediation and arbitration (presented by SCC Justice Milutinović and University of Belgrade Faculty of Law adjunct professor Ms. Milena Đorđević), an international expert, Mr. Aleš Zalar (former Slovenian justice minister and court president), provided an interesting overview of various models for development of mediation. Re-opening of this topic at this level (during Annual Judges' Conference), gives a chance for a fresh start of mediation practice in Serbia, which was initially launched in Serbia with the enacting of the Law on Mediation in 2005, but has not developed sustainably.
NEW LAW ON ENFORCEMENT AND SECURITY
Within the Tuesday plenary session, Justice Apostolović presented the SCC responses to disputed legal issues derived from the New Law on Enforcement and Security, the collection and processing of which has been supported by MDTF specialists.
COURT AND ARBITRATION
In this session, focused on relationship between court and arbitration, MDTF Court Jurisprudence Specialist consultant was assigned by the Head of SCC Civil Department to follow the main aspects presented by expert from Hague International Council for Commercial Arbitration, regarding its database (including around 200 various national courts' decisions, where the New York Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards has been applied).
COURTS’ AWARD PROGRAM
For the first time in its history, the Supreme Court of Cassation introduced courts’ award program – a tool to promote results achieved by courts as teams, and to incentivize their good performance. MDTF M&E Specialist was fully involved in the development of the program.
The awards ceremony occurred during Annual Judges’ Conference, and it was preceded by adoption of the Rules on Awards and Acknowledgements for Courts in Serbia. The Rules were adopted by the Plenary Session of the SCC justices in September 2016, thus expending the competences of the Court. The Rules introduce four awarding categories: largest progress achieved in backlog reduction, largest progress achieved in the disposition of cases, the best innovation and the most significant improvement in outreach and communication with the public. The SCC Commission, created upon the Rules, analyzed and compared results achieved by all first instance courts in Serbia, as reported in semi-annual reports of June 2015 and of June 2016. The Commission decided to award only basic courts in 2016, since their contribution to boosting the performance of the entire court system was the greatest in the last year. Having set the performance indicators to be considered in awarding process, the Commission decided to limit 2016 awards to the first two criteria. Basic Court in Nis was announced a winner as the court which achieved the largest progress in backlog reduction, and Belgrade First Basic Court as a winner as the court which achieved the largest progress in the disposition of cases.
There were seven awards winners in total. Apart from these, eleven courts were acknowledged for their contribution to the overall court performance.
This year, the whole program, including awards, plaques, certificates as well as the reception was supported by the MDTF-JSS. The project allocated 22,000 EUR for awards fund, which money will be used to purchase equipment and goods to serve to the entire court.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
During the Conference, the Consultant for the Reform of Legal Professions held an introductory/kick-off meeting with judges, representatives of the four appellate jurisdictions (Belgrade, Niš, Kragujevac and Novi Sad), who will take part in the Coordinating and Advisory Working Group for the Establishing of a Sustainable ADR System. Following this meeting, a joint meeting the IPA Judicial Efficiency Project representatives was organised. It was agreed that the Law on Mediation in Dispute Resolution (“Official Gazette of RS” No. 55/2014), which is applicable since 1 January 2015, although a sound legal framework, has not rendered desired results as it’s entering into force and application has not been followed by the necessary promotional and systematic support of all relevant stakeholders (state, courts, Judicial Academy, lawyers). Coordinated, joint, continued multi-annual efforts must be made in order to establish a viable and sustainable mediation system, especially having in mind that an interim benchmark within the European Union Common Position on Judiciary and Fundamental Rights stresses, in respect to the need for backlog reduction, the need to further explore and promote the use of various alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
Updated: October 27, 2016
