Serbia and International Law at the Crossroads of Centuries - Serbian Approach to International Law until the Beginning of the First World War

Author(s): Vesna Knežević-Predić,Janja Simentić / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In this article the authors focus on the historical analysis of the position of Serbia towards international law of the XIX century. The research encompasses a broad period of time, spanning from 1830 to the beginning of the First World War, in order to cover the distinct legal status of Serbia – both as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire and as an independent State. The research has proven that Serbia has taken a stance on international law in an indirect manner even before it gained independence – through the Ottoman Empire. In order to provide a closer insight into Serbia’s indirect approach towards internationallaw, the authors will point to the institutes that came into being before the change of Serbia’s international legal status. This part of the research will address the following issues: regime of capitulations, establishment of consular relations with third countries and treaties applicable to Serbia as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. In the second −central part of the research, the authors will comment upon Serbia’s direct approach to international law, which Serbia developed by becoming a party to international treaties on its own behalf, especially in the field of international law of armed conflict. In that respect, 1864 Geneva Convention and 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions are of paramount importance. Having in mind that Serbia was accepted as a party to the Geneva Convention even before gaining independence, it is important to note that Serbia’ s direct approach temporally precedes the change of its legal status. Another pivotal issue for Serbia’s direct link with international law were the Hague Conventions. Serbia did not only become their signatory state but was also included in the making of the mentioned conventions. Therefore, the authors will provide an in depth analysis of Serbian participation, activities and contributions to the Hague peace conferences. It will be concluded that in spite of its newly changed international status, Serbia was fast in adapting to the international legal environment. Serbia was aware of the need to become an active part of the international community and wisely used its resources to engage in international legal processes.

LJUDSKA PRAVA

Author(s): Saša Madacki / Language(s): Bosnian Publication Year: 0

Cilj ovog rada je polaznicima Akademije političkog liderstva ponuditi pregledan uvod u proučavanje oblasti ljudskih prava uvidom u dostupnu literaturu, kao dopunu predavanjima i razgovorima na Akademiji. Naime, u toku nastave na Akademiji, polaznicima je predstavljen uvod u ljudska prava u nekoliko tematskih cjelina. U okviru ovih tematskih cjelina diskutiran je istorijski aspekt ljudskih prava, geneza ideje ljudskih prava od Kirovog cilindra, preko Magne Charte Libertatum (1215) i Deklaracije o pravima građanina i čovjeka (1789), pa sve do Evropske konvencije o ljudskim pravima i osnovnim slobodama. Pored diskusije o institucionalnom pristupu ljudskim pravima, snažan akcent je stavljen na moć pojedinca da mijenja neželjeno u društvu. Diskutirani su podvizi heroja ljudskih prava Gandija, Kinga, Mandele i hWeroina Rose Parks, majke Tereze. Otvoren je pogled i na drugu stranu medalje, diskutirano je o prezentiranim dokazima s tribunala (pisma Raschera Himleru, Himlera Bracku, te prof. Clauberga Himleru o eksperimentiranju nad Jevrejima u koncentracionim logorima) u Nürnbergu, koji su služili kao podloga diskusiji o nacističkim zločinima, te kako je zapravo ishod tog suđenja u procesu protiv ljekara u koncentracionim logorima izrodio kodekse medicinske etike kakvu danas poznajemo. Nakon toga prezentirani su koncepti pozitivnih i prirodnih prava.

Развитието на наказателното право и отделни негови институти в периода от създаването на Българската държава до средновековието

Author(s): Milena Raynovska / Language(s): Bulgarian Publication Year: 0

The report traces the development of criminal law, after the establishment of the Bulgarian state in 681, and the question of how changes in state structure and falling Bulgarian state under Christian influence have an effect on the development of criminal law in medieval Bulgaria.

The Legality of Uti Possidetis in the Definition of Kovoso’s Legal Status

Author(s): Fernanda Florentino Fernandez Jankov,Vesna B. Ćorić / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In this work the authors give us the analyze of the old principle of Roman law Uti Possidetis, that has served as as the base for the work Badeunter’s commission, and later also for the Resolution 1244 of the Security Council of UN.

Istorijat izbora u Kneževini i Kraljevini Srbiji

Author(s): Miroslav Đorđević / Language(s): Serbian Publication Year: 0

The election of delegates in Serbia in the 19th century developed gradually. It has evolved from the elections regulated by the customs, to an advanced and democratic system of that time, like the one regulated by the Constitution of 1888 and the Election Law of 1890. The elections were often accompanied by political pressure of the authorities; therefore, big accomplishments achieved through Serbia’s constitutional history, were exclusion of the police from the election process, establishment of voters list, anonymous voting etc. The proportional elective system, introduced with the Constitution of 1888 was new at the time, and not yet applied in many other European countries. During the Principality and Kingdom of Serbia the general right to vote did not exist. Women and end entire categories of the population were excluded from voting. A property census existed all the time with varied values. Nevertheless, with the exception of the two-year validity of the Constitution of 1901, Serbia was tending to become a country with the parliamentary system, in which apart from the rule of the monarch, the sovereign people rule as well, through the representatives it has elected.

European Level of Serbian Medieval Legislation

Author(s): Đurica Krstić / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

A legislative Act and the most significant legal monument of Serbian medieval history – Code of Tsar Stephan Dushan was enacted in 1349 and amended in 1954. Its original has never been found, but some twenty five transcriptions in different editions were by now known to our history of law. The oldest ones are the Struga and Prizren copies. For decades this monument has been and still is the subject of research both in the country and abroad. Emperor Stephan Dushan was probably the most powerful rulers in Europe of his time, with real prospects of taking Constantinople and inheriting thus the declining Byzantine Empire. This position involved also his imperial duty to introduce peace and order in ethnically and religiously different countries under his rule. This had to be achieved by legal unification on the grand model of Byzantine law which has in this way definitely introduced in the foundations of Serbian medieval law. The Code is a complementary act completing and refining the existing system, providing a unified basis for regulation. Its content is a genuine indication of high level of legal and general culture of Serbian medieval State, reflecting also economic conditions and developed relations of Dushan’s Empire in all aspects of life. In a way it is a written proof of the rise of State which, unfortunately, did not continue due to sudden death of Stephan Dushan in 1355. Included in the Code are the following matters: position of Church as a crucial factor of State order with provisions of constitutional character, rights and obligations of feudal aristocracy and dependent layers of population, State order and economy, inheritance and particularly, system of penalties, procedure and administration of justice emphasizing the rule of law in most modern sense of the word, civil law matters, etc.

Razvoj službeničkog sistema federalne uprave SAD: od potrage za političkim plenom ka ostvarenju javnog interesa

Author(s): Aleksandra Rabrenović / Language(s): Serbian Publication Year: 0

The paper analyses historical development of the US civil service since XIX century to date. Until the end of XIX century, the US federal service was characterized by wide-spread political patronage and corruption, which resulted in a creation of a so-called »spoils system«. The Pendleton Act of 1883 made a radical shift in the development of the US civil service, by introducing the concept of non partisan merit and protection from political influence in the recruitment, promotion and retention of federal government workers. The author argues that the concept of merit further denotes a public service character – a desire to act not for individual self interest but for a broader public good. Merit is therefore related to values, ideals and ethics to the appropriate role of the civil service in democracy and thus to governance in a democratic society. The paper further analyses the provisions of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which constitutes the first major reform of the federal public service personnel system since the Pendleton Act. The idea was to develop civil service reform proposal that would make government more efficient and businesslike. Objectives were to modernize human resource management by streamlining the system through simplification and decentralization and restructure the reform management structures by replacing the Civil Service Commission, creating the Senior Executive Service, as a highly-professional senior civil service and to address such issues as productivity, compensation and performance evaluation. Performance appraisals and merit pay were standardized and procedurally sound, but lacked in higher productivity outcomes. The original merit pay system was therefore eventually replaced and abandoned in 1993. National Performance Review (NPR) shifted the focus away from the individual performance appraisal and rewards and toward agency or organizational goals instead. Furthermore, the Senior Executive Service did not become the higher civil service that its framers had envisioned. However, members of the Senior Executive Service do enjoy the prestige of senior personnel and their position allows them to focus on leadership and career development. Nevertheless, the Senior Executive Service structure has also allowed politicians to infiltrate their political supports into the career bureaucratic structures, which had a negative effect on career civil servants morale. Politicization remains one of the weakest points of the US federal administration. The number of political appointees steadily increased during the last half ot the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, as did the methods of appointment to those positions. A great majority of political appointees lack minimal technical qualifications or understanding of how to work with the career civil servants. Therefore, their increased number creates an extra political and management burden for the White House. Although the Presidents have legitimate authority to direct the executive branch, the career civil service assumes a level of expertise that permits questioning political directives if they are questionable or unsound. Further politicization of the civil service may, however, jeopardize civil servants commitment to broader public good and integrity in performing one’s job to the best of one’s ability and therefore put at risk the realization of the US civil service merit ideal.

O nekim aspektima Glave VII federalnog zakona o građanskim pravima iz 1964.

Author(s): Milica V. Matijević / Language(s): Serbian Publication Year: 0

The 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was the first major civil rights legislation since the Reconstruction era, was enacted to deal with the remaining forms of segregation and to that end it addressed discrimination in public accommodations, education, exercise of voting rights and employment. Title VII prohibition of workplace discrimination, which had its roots in the Unemployment Relief Act of 1933, have brought great change in the life of a million of Americans belonging to the traditionally marginalized groups. Once legal challenges to the constitutionality of Title VII were resolved the American courts started to build the rules of evidence in the Title VII cases. In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green and in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. the Supreme Court shaped two major theories and on the basis of them developed two major methods of proving discrimination in employment. The “disparate treatment theory” and “disparate impact theory” respectively, are still used as the prevailing frameworks for interpreting the Title VII provisions in most discrimination cases involving circumstantial evidence. These two methods have proved as equally useful in all types of employment actions – from a failure to hire or promote to termination of a contract and discriminatory application of a seniority system. Differently from the progressive role the Supreme Court had had in the first two decades after the enactment of Title VII, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, civil rights activists and litigants experienced mounting frustration over a more and more rigid interpretation of the Title VII provisions in the decisions of this supreme judicial body. After the Supreme Court’s decisions in Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Antonio and in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, there was a general feeling that the Court had seriously misinterpreted the political will and Congress quickly began the process of setting a different course. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 highlights the relationship between the Court and Congress in interpreting Title VII and it came as a direct response of the Congress to the Supreme Court ruling in the two cases. The 1991 Act added a new subsection to Title VII codifying the “disparate impact theory” of discrimination. In response to Price-Waterhouse ruling, the 1991 Act provided that where the plaintiff shows that discrimination was a motivating factor for an employment decision the employer is liable even though it proves it would have made the same decision in the absence of a discriminatory motive. However, even after these legislative changes the question remains whether the Title VII system of protection can adequately respond to the more subtle and complex forms of discrimination featuring the XXI century workplace. The so-called “second generation workplace discrimination” involve social practices and patterns of interaction among groups that lead to the exclusion of non-dominant groups. These patterns of exclusion often cannot be directly traced to intentional, distinct actions of particular workplace actors and may be visible only at the level of a general trend. Furthermore, the general presence of symbolic forms of compliance with Title VII provisions in the majority of business entities does not necessarily mean that these forms result in substantive change. Rather, the process of “menagerialization of law”, when the discrimination-related problems are recast as interpersonal or managerial issues and “workplace diversity” postulated as the ultimate attainment of the prohibition of discrimination, tend to undermine the logic of the American anti-discrimination law.

Češka Republika

Author(s): Katarina Jovičić / Language(s): Serbian Publication Year: 0

Prvi sistem zdravstvene zaštite u Češkoj Republici uspostavljen je krajem XIX veka i to u oblasti Bohemija, koja je bila sastavni deo Austro-Ugarske monarhije. U Bohemiji je tada, kao i u ostatku monarhije, zdravstvena zaštita bila organizovana po sistemu koji je poznat kao Bizmarkov model zdravstvenog osiguranja. Ovako uređen sistem je funkcionisao sve do proglašenja nezavisnosti, odnosno do osnivanja Čehoslovačke Republike 1918. godine, ali i neko vreme nakon toga.1 On je bio dobro utemeljen budući da je još u prvoj godini nezavisnosti donet Zakon o zdravstvenom osiguranju, koji je predviđao obavezno osiguranje za sve zaposlene, a to je činilo oko jednu trećinu ukupnog broja stanovnika.2Na tim osnovama je u Čehoslovačkoj Republici 1924. godine uspostavljen prvi socijalni model zdravstvenog osiguranja.

Улога нотара у средњовјековном Дубровнику

Author(s): Mirjana Pupić / Language(s): Serbian Publication Year: 0

Development of the notary institution in Dubrovnik has been presented within this document, covering period from its very beginning until the period of contemporary notaries. These information are based on the published and unpublished sources from the National Archives in Dubrovnik. At the beginning of the work it is given a brief overview of the notary institution development in European regions, particularly in Italy, which had the greatest impact on Dubrovnik’s notary office. Then, the author enters into the issue of Dubrovnik’s notary where elaborates various aspects related to notaries such as the appearance of the first notary, origin, and their role in the preparation of testaments. Special attention was paid to the analysis of various provisions of the notary institution which are contained in the basic source of Dubrovnik’s law, Statutarum civitatis Ragusii.

Narodziny władzy najwyższej w II Rzeczypospolitej

Author(s): Dariusz Górecki / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Powstanie II Rzeczypospolitej z perspektywy prawnomiędzynarodowej

Author(s): Joanna Połatyńska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Administracja rządowa w okresie pierwszego prowizorium konstytucyjnego (1918–1921) – struktura i zadania

Author(s): Anna Michalak / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Wolności i prawa człowieka

Author(s): Anna Rakowska-Trela / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Zasady prawa wyborczego w pierwszej ordynacji wyborczej w okresie II Rzeczypospolitej

Author(s): Konrad Składowski / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Sprawy narodowościowe u progu odzyskania niepodległości i w pierwszych latach II Rzeczypospolitej

Author(s): Krzysztof Skotnicki / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Wpływ nowoczesnej myśli podatkowej na kształtowanie konstrukcji podatków w II Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej

Author(s): Aneta Szymczak / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Subject of Sociology of Law in the Legal Order of Modern Globalized Society

Author(s): Slobodan Petrović / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The state is a social community that represents a multitude of individuals and the interactions between them. From this, we conclude that the state is a legal and a social being. Max Weber claimed that the assignment of sociology is “to understand social behavior through interpretation.” Both then and today, the subject of the sociology of law is social behavior. The legal order encompasses, analyzes, and acts on the actions performed by persons as citizens or bodies of the state who interpret their behavior. The state is a social reality within the legal order because all individuals belonging to the same state constitute a unity, i.e., one state’s population. The population is one of the three basic elements of the state. According to these same constituents, the sociology that studies the state is interested in analyzing that behavior. This paper will specifically analyze human behavior oriented towards the legal order, the normative character of the state, the problem of society in a globalized world, and the impact of globalization on the legal system through the movement of individuals in legal systems and societies.

Zelenskyy’s Lustration Mistake

Author(s): Michael Emerson,Artem Remizov / Language(s): English

The term lustration (люстрація in Ukrainian) has its origin in Roman purification rituals. It came into use in contemporary politics in 1989-91 with the end of Communism in Europe, with several central and east European states banning former Communist regime officials from further public office. In Ukraine there was a lustration episode back in October 2014, to prevent top and mid-level officials who served during the Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency from taking the public office for a period of ten years.

Diachronic Perspective Regarding the Solemnity of the Justice Act over Time

Author(s): Marilena Marin / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The concept of solemnity in the act of justice has a long history, originating in antiquity and evolving with the development of society. Since the dawn of history, people have recognized the need to establish official procedures and ceremonies to reach fair and accepted decisions in various disputes and conflicts. Implementing incorrect or erroneous decisions would have deviated from the rules of justice and, at times, even undermined the act of justice. Our work is of practical interest by relating to professional ethics and deontology, as well as analyzing the efficiency of the judicial procedure and the correctness of the title subject to compulsory execution. From the perspective of scientific research methodology, this work addresses the concept of solemnity of the act of justice from the perspective of legal history, through an analysis of each historical era and in relation to certain peoples who have distinguished themselves over time through the rules established in the conduct of trials and the strictness with which they have imposed these rules.