The participants of workshop in Belgrade Western Balkans region
At the end of 2024, German-speaking (junior) lawyers and language mediators from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, who had already taken part in various internships, language courses and courses on German law organised by the IRZ, discussed current topics in German law and the participating countries at the Institute for Comparative Law in Belgrade.
The aim of the workshop, which was conducted entirely in German, was not only to strengthen the legal knowledge of the alumni, but also to improve their ability to exchange ideas in German on legal issues and to network with each other.
The participants themselves also gave presentations on topics such as the legal requirements for the EU accession sought by the partner states in the Western Balkans and comparative legal presentations on German law and the law of the region. Other priorities were constitutional law and legal training for trainee lawyers in Germany on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law.
The extensive programme of events was interspersed with entertaining elements such as a quiz on German law and the presentation of a birthday cake for the Basic Law, which was accepted by the Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Serbia, Mr Carsten Meyer-Wiefhausen.
Former President of the Regional Court, Winfried Schubert, during his presentation. North Macedonia
The Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia celebrated its 60th anniversary on 15 March 2024 with an OSCE-supported international conference on ‘Freedom of expression and the press’. Due to the good and long-standing cooperation with IRZ, our organisation was involved in the programme with two expert presentations.
The President of the Constitutional Court, Dobrila Kacarska, opened the conference, which was followed by words of welcome from high-ranking guests, such as the President of the Republic, Stevo Pendarovski, the Speaker of Parliament, Jovan Mitreski, the President of the Government, Talat Xhafri, the Minister of Justice, Krenar Loga, the OSCE Head of Mission, Kilian Wahl, the EU delegation, Ben Nupau, and the ambassadors of the USA, Angela Price, and Germany, Petra Drexler.
This was followed by two panels moderated by the former judge at the ECHR, Margarita Tsatsa-Nikolovska. In this context, the international speakers presented the case law of the various national constitutional courts and the European Court of Human Rights on the topic of ‘freedom of expression and freedom of the press’.
IRZ expert Winfried Schubert, former President of the Constitutional Court of Saxony-Anhalt, presented future constitutional challenges in the area of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in the areas of ‘hate speech’, ‘fake news’ and ‘artificial intelligence’. Mladen Cadikovski, President of the Association of Journalists of North Macedonia (AJM), presented the media's perspective. In addition, IRZ head of section, lawyer Dr Stefan Pürner, responsible for North Macedonia, presented the Lüth ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in Macedonian, emphasising that this decision also made many critical contributions to the social debate possible in the first place.
Participants in the library of the Nuremberg Higher Regional Court. North Macedonia
A working visit by young judges from North Macedonia to the Higher Regional Court, Regional Court and Local Court of Nuremberg took place in Nuremberg from 22 to 26 October 2023. IRZ organised the event, which was made possible by project funding from the Federal Foreign Office, in cooperation with the Nuremberg Higher Regional Court and the Pavel Shatev Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors.
The focus was on the practice of effective conduct of hearings by judges as well as questions of judicial organisation and voluntary jurisdiction. The group also took the opportunity to learn about the judicial reappraisal of National Socialism in Nuremberg. Together with Bavarian trainee judges, the young judges took part in an all-day event in Courtroom 600, the site of the Nuremberg war crimes trials.
The event was a part of the critical reflection on the law in accordance with Section 51 of the German Judges Act, which was revised in 2021.
