IRZ has been advising the Ministry of Justice of North Macedonia for several months now on its reform of the penal code. The reform process is being supported by a working group from the Ministry, which held its inaugural meeting online on 15 February 2021. The twenty or so legal experts and legal practitioners in the working group were welcomed to the meeting by Nikolina Mikeska from the Ministry of Justice of North Macedonia, Ana Novakova Zhikova from the OSCE Mission in Skopje, and Dr. Stefan Pürner, the responsible IRZ Head of Section.
During the meeting, the leader of the working group, Prof. Dr. Kambovski, expressed the need for a unified system and uniform structures in terms of the penalties provided for by the law. The activities of the working group and the reform process for the penal code in North Macedonia will focus on fulfilling this requirement over the coming months.
During the second half of 2021, the draft of the revised penal code will be presented to the public, thereby allowing any interested parties in the professional community to have a say in the reform process.
As part of the consultancy services provided by IRZ, German legal experts from the academic and business worlds have already given their expert opinions on draft criminal law provisions. These reports cover the following subjects:
economic crime
fighting terrorism
cybercrime
protection of elections
cloning and artificial parenthood
insolvency offences
The authors gave their expert opinions on draft laws from North Macedonia, taking into account the contents of the corresponding penal law provisions in Germany and any relevant international and European provisions.
On 7 and 9 December 2020, IRZ, together with the “Training Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors” for North Macedonia held two online seminars on the subjects mentioned above.
Both events for judges from North Macedonia were opened by the Director of the Academy, Prof. Dr. Natasha Gabler Damjovska, and IRZ Head of Section Dr. Stefan Pürner. Once the 60 or so participants had been welcomed to the seminars, lectures were given from the points of view of both countries. The speakers at the seminars were:
"Conduct of court hearings by judges”
Keti Germanova, a judge at the Local Court of Skopje
Daniel Jung, a Regional Court judge and lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences for the Administration of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia
“Encouraging settlements in civil processes”
Katerina Goeorgievska, a judge at the Court of Appeal in Skopje
Dr. Ingo Werner, a judge at the Higher Regional Court of Cologne
Both events reflected the role of judges in civil law. The discussions focussed in particular on the question of the extent to which the relevant rules of procedure allow judges to negotiate actively with parties and their representatives on the likelihood of the success of a claim and to make definitive settlement proposals.
According to article 307, paragraph 3 of the code of civil procedure for North Macedonia, judges must point out the possibility of a settlement during proceedings and “help” (помогне) the parties to agree on such a settlement. Controversial discussions on this point of “helping” followed on from the lectures, since the Macedonian participants were worried that they might be seen as biased if they, for example, talked about the legal situation with the parties or made definitive suggestions for settlements. The judicial self-perception of judges often has a bigger influence here on the effectiveness of court proceedings than the written provisions of the law.
The judicial self-perception of German legal practice and their positive experiences with giving judicial advice could provide important momentum in this respect.
On 8 October 2020, IRZ and the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia organised an exchange of experiences on constitutional court jurisdiction in connection with the Coronavirus pandemic.
The event was attended locally as well as online. Judges from the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia participated in person in the conference room at the Constitutional Court, under observance of healthcare guidelines. All other contributors and participants, including research staff at the court, joined the exchange of experiences online.
Sali Murati, President of the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia, and Dr. Stefan Pürner from IRZ started by welcoming the participants to the event. The German Ambassador, Anke Holstein, then gave a welcome speech in which she expressed the hope that North Macedonia’s EU accession talks would start this year. She also referred to the great importance of IRZ activities in North Macedonia in view of the EU’s focus on the rule of law.
Sali Murati and Prof. Dr. Udo Steiner, a former judge at the German Federal Constitutional Court, gave speeches presenting their own national perspectives. The speeches provided an overview of case law in connection with restrictions to contain the pandemic. They both agreed that the proportionality test is central to constitutional courts in both countries, conceding relatively broad discretionary powers in their rulings, but they also emphasised the fact that restrictions must always be adapted to suit the current rate of infection. Unlike in Germany, the measures introduced to deal with the pandemic in North Macedonia are mostly introduced by way of decrees with the force of law and not through parliament.
The President of the Constitutional Court, Sali Murati, also referred in his lecture to the fact that the main challenge facing constitutional jurisdiction during the pandemic is not just about ruling on an increased number of cases of general importance within a short amount of time, but about maintaining the ability of the court to function. So, whilst the North Macedonian Parliament suspended its activities during the state of emergency, the Constitutional Court was able to continue to fulfil its responsibilities throughout. To conclude his lecture, Mr Murati emphasised the importance of constitutional courts maintaining active press and publicity work during the crisis.
