Fic rEcommEndationS - Eurobank EFG

The Law on Public Notaries governs the organisation and
activities of public notaries and will become applicable as
of 1 September 2012. The activities of public notaries are
currently performed by courts.
Another notable development is the adoption of the new
Legal Profession Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of
Serbia No. 31/2011), which has established additional requirements
for becoming an attorney at law, such as completing
the Bar Academy. This Act also introduced the possibility
for foreign attorneys to be registered with the Bar
Association of Serbia and to represent parties in Serbia.
The Law on Civil Procedure (Official Gazette of the Republic
of Serbia No. 125/2004 and 111/2009) still governs the
civil procedure and protection of rights before courts regarding
civil, commercial, personal, labour, personal, family,
and other property and civil law disputes, except in cases
for which a specific procedure is envisaged by another
law. However, due to the adoption of the new Law on Civil
Procedure, which has the same scope of regulation as its
predecessor, the old law shall cease to apply on 1 February
2012. The main issues regarding civil proceedings in
Serbia currently arise from the provisions on summoning
and notification of the parties in a procedure, which are
obsolete and allow delay tactics and abuse of the process
by the parties and other participants. The other important
issue is that the phases of the main hearing and evidence
presentations are not concentrated. This is mostly caused
by the unsatisfactory organisational reform of the judiciary.
There are other problems such as the lack of a deadline
for issuing an appellate decision, insufficient rules on
summoning or notifying the parties and the court via email,
lack of the option to use audio and video equipment
at hearings, lack of stenographers and lack of a clear and
strict deadline to produce evidence at a hearing. It is also
important to mention that the currently applicable Law on
Civil Procedure does not provide equal rights for the party
applying for a legal remedy and its opponent. Namely, the
party opposing a legal remedy has a half as much time to
submit its response to the legal remedy submission than
the party submitting the legal remedy. However, it should
be expected that the new Law on Civil Procedure will remedy
the main issues of its predecessor.
Arbitration proceedings in Serbia are governed by the
Law on Arbitration (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia
No. 46/2006) adopted in 2006. This Law fully complies
with the 1985 UNCITRAL Model Law on Arbitration. However,
the Law on Arbitration is not completely in conformity
with the subsequently adopted 2006 UNCITRAL Model
Law on Arbitration. On the other hand, the mediation
procedure is governed by the Law on Mediation (Official
Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 18/2005). Mediation
and arbitration in some matters (such as labour law, activities
of touristic agencies, etc.) are governed by separate
laws or regulations. Both arbitration and mediation are
rarely used in practice, primarily due to their poor promotion
in public as more efficient and cheaper options for
dispute resolution.
PoSitiVE dEVELoPmEntS
The revision of the reappointment procedure of judges
in a more transparent manner is certainly the main precondition
for an efficient judiciary system. Therefore, it is
now up to the High Judiciary Council to correct mistakes
from the past, but it is important to note that the chance
is there. Most courts of general jurisdiction, as well as
commercial courts now have online databases showing
the status of ongoing cases. However, not all of the courts
have useful online databases like the Administrative Court
and the Constitutional Court of Serbia; some have no databases
at all, such as Appellate Courts, Misdemeanour
Courts and the Supreme Court of Cassation.
The ultimate, or at least the most promising improvement
of judicial proceedings in 2011, has been achieved by
the Law on Enforcement and Security, which introduces
more precise rules on deadlines for rendering decisions
upon the motion on enforcement, as well as upon legal
remedies, and sets up clear and detailed procedures. The
delays are possible only in extraordinary cases or in cases
explicitly prescribed by the Law, in order to achieve more
efficient enforcement procedures. The Law reduces the
number of legal remedies and now objections are the only
available remedy that can be submitted, but for a limited
number of reasons. The law introduces a greater number
of enforceable decisions and authentic documents, and
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