Sažetak ▼

Electoral solutions are part of the system of local government. They are conditioned and shaped by other legal elements of that entity, such as territorial organization, jurisdiction, the organization of government, elements of consocialism at the local level, funding, legal protection, etc. In addition, these solutions are determined by a multitude of extra-legal factors, ranging from geography, to the economic, demographic, social, ethnic... The basic dilemma in the creation of the local electoral system is the choice of its models – the majority or proportional. In theory, there are arguments in favor of the attitudes of some of them, criticism of their achievement, as well as different practices of their functioning, because the theoretical elaboration of the mentioned characteristics is not necessary guarantee of their success. In each country there are specific circumstances, needs, interests and traditions, as well as a certain degree of quality and development of political culture, which prevent undisputed application of theoretical patterns or solutions that are certified in other countries. The basic consideration in the standardization of local elections should always be an attempt to have, depending on the circumstances, the most democratic content of a stable and functional local government.

Sažetak ▼

On the basis of accepted international standards contained in numerous documents of international organizations of a regional character (the Council of Europe, the European Union, etc.), the Republic of Serbia has with its new Criminal Code of 2005 and other supplementary legislation defined the terms, conditions for application, the manner of execution and other issues for the convicted offender to stay on freedom and supervision over his behavior, life and work. Although the sentence of imprisonment (deprivation of liberty) is the basic and the most important type of criminal sanction in our country, it does not need to be executed, to a greater or lesser extent, in institutional terms, but it is possible while the offender is free. The paper analyzes the application of European standards for supervision of convicted offenders on the probation and their implementation in the criminal legislation of Serbia with the theoretical and practical aspects.

Sažetak ▼

By the Law on Ratification of the United Nations’ Convention against corruption and the Law on validation of the Civic-legal convention on corruption, the Republic of Serbia has made a commitment to arrange the issue of the protection of those who report the suspected corruption and other illegal conduct, comprehensively and by law. According to the Article 9 of the Civic-Legal convention on corruption, each contracting party should provide, in the domestic law, appropriate protection from any unjustified sanction against the employees, who have justified reason to suspect corruption and who, in good faith, report their suspicions to responsible persons or bodies. The National Strategy for combating against corruption in the Republic of Serbia for the period from year 2013 until 2018 and the accompanying Action Plan foresee, as one of the goals, the establishing of efficient and beneficial protection of whistleblowers who report suspicion of corruption. By passing the Law on Protection of Whistle-blowers, the Republic of Serbia has taken the necessary steps towards the establishing of the normative framework and capacity for determined combat against corruption and at the same times it realizes the obligations undertaken from the international acts, and above all the recommendations of the Group of states for the combat against corruption of the Council of Europe (GRECO)

Sažetak ▼

Development of information technologies has caused the expansion of existing and the emergence of new forms of expression of sexual exploitation of children. With the abuse of credit cards and piracy, the abuse of children for the pornography industry over the Internet is the most common form of cyber crime. Offenses in the sphere of sexual exploitation of children, are very specific crimes which include grave breaches of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The national criminal legislation is complemented by the legislation which sanctions offenses in the area of cyber crime. The Criminal Code included the offenses in areas that are the subject of this article. In addition, the subject of analysis is legal solutions of the European countries in penalizing child pornography, but special review was made to the provisions of Article 9 of the Convention on Cybercrime concerning the above mentioned issues.

Sažetak ▼

Cooperatives as forms of association are known in all Member States of the European Union, as well as in the countries outside the European borders. The paper gives an overview of the legal regulation of the supranational legal form of cooperatives, which could be established in the European Union since 2003. Societas Cooperativa Europaea or European cooperative is introduced into the legal system of the European Union by the Council Regulation (EC) no. 1435/2003, on the Statute of the European Cooperative Society (SCE). The European legislator wanted to provide cooperatives with the same conditions as their competitors, i.e. companies have in market competition. Although entrepreneurs do not exploit the full potential of cooperatives, their importance is emphasized by the fact that the legislators of the European member states, but other countries also are in a constant process of updating the national regulations on cooperatives. The aim of this paper is to point out that the appropriate legal framework for cooperatives at the national and supranational level can contribute to economic development.

Sažetak ▼

Competition law is a term that refers to the totality of legal norms that are subject to maintain free competition between companies in a particular market. The competition law of European Union differs from the national law of the Member States or the competition law of the United States, since it reflects the values and objectives which the Union aspires. As a consequence of Europe’s historical development stems the fact that in the European Union do not exist the dogmatic aspire to increasing competition in the market of certain product, but in a broader sense, to achieve economic, and even social harmony. Because of the need to the full and effective implementation in practice, legal rules of competition of the European Union are to be interpreted with practical and economic and not legally formalistic standpoint. In addition to providing free competition, one of the main goals of competition law of the European Union is the preservation of the unity of the European single market.

Sažetak ▼

This paper considers the issue of consumer protection in the contract of package travel in the European Union and the Republic of Serbia. In the beginning, it is indicated that the consumer protection in this contract in the European consumer Law regulates Directive 90/314/EEC, which has been overcome due to the fact that a large number of contracts of package travel which are concluded today is out of the scope of its application, but also because of insufficiently precise and incomplete rules on liability for the non conforming services. The need to overcome these shortcomings, which have a negative impact on consumer protection, has been observed a long time ago and the process of adoption of the new rules is in progress. Namely, a proposal for a new Directive, which governs the rights of consumers in package travel and assisted travel arrangements, is in a regular legislative procedure and should be adopted soon. The solutions and objectives of that Proposal, as well as of the current Directive 90/314/EEC are presented and analyzed in the paper. After that, their importance for the Republic of Serbia in the context of the current state of consumer protection in the Consumer Protection Act is considered, as well as in the context of obligations to harmonize the national legislation with the EU’s. The rules of the Consumer Protection Act are harmonized not only with Directive 90/314/EEC, but also with the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Package Travel and Assisted Travel Arrangements. Moreover, they are compatible with the rules of the contract of package travel, which regulates the Draft Civil Code of the Republic of Serbia. That proves that the Republic of Serbia, in this matter, has timely taken the measures for the harmonization of its law with the EU law.

Sažetak ▼

The study coincides with the attention to the EU budget as specificity of a public finance. In modern conditions the budget of each state, as an institution of public finances, attracts the attention of the general public. Height of the budget is limited and depends primarily on the financial resources of each State, or the level of GDP to be achieved. The scope of the budget should be based on real needs. The author considers the process of making a budget, usually in the form of law. This is primarily because the budget is an institution that realizes the funding of public functions. The budget contributes to the normal functioning of the modern state in condition of financial crisis. On the other side, the budget as an institution of public finances is also present in the most important international economic organizations, the EU. That was the main motive and goal of this paper to examine its specificity in relation to other countries that operate independently. On the basis of these attitudes can be concluded that the budget itself and all that accompanies it is very dynamic, variable and very important phenomenon. The European Union with its 28 members and almost 500 million people has a great responsibility to every budget and VFO reconcile the different interests of the member states, on the other hand that every citizen of the Union has benefited from the adopted budget.

Sažetak ▼

The improvement of the financial surveillance system of a candidate country is an important requirement in the process of negotiations with the EU. Chapter 32 on financial control is dedicated to the issues of public internal financial control, external audit, protection of European Communities’ financial interests and selected issues of the protection of the euro against counterfeiting. The first two topics are the focus of this paper, which aim is to cast a light on the state of current developments in the institutional setting and the normative framework related to public internal financial control and external audit in Serbia. The normative framework of internal controls and external audit is based on international standards and good practices, and therefore this is not an issue of transposition of the acquis communautaire, but mostly efficient implementation of the system of internal and external controls. Although financial constraints jeopardize the development of financial surveillance, in addition to capacity building, the overall public view of the concept of financial control should be reconsidered. Financial control should not be understood in its formal, legalistic compliance view, but also as an important factor of the new public management and public administration reform.

Sažetak ▼

Principles that had been set out in a clear and comprehensible manner by the English Marine Insurance Act 1906 posed courts a difficulty in their application in the current development of insurance law, because they were inadequate for today’s insurance market. Therefore, reform of the certain rules on misrepresentation and nondisclosure of the material facts before the formation of the insurance policy was needed. In this paper, we analyze the changes of the Marine Insurance Act introduced by the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 and the Insurance Act 2015 regarding the standard of consumer’s reasonable care, principle of utmost good faith, avoidance, duty of disclosure and consequences of deliberate or reckless disclosure, avoidance in case of warranty breach and criteria for determining what party the agent works for. The authors do not look at the changes in other pieces of legislation, particularly not regulating disclosure and representations in consumer insurance policies. Furthermore, the authors cite views of the bill proposer and reputable English legal academics on these issues and outline importance of making familiar with those changes for all who wish to place insurance directly or through the intermediary on the London and Lloyd’s markets.

Sažetak ▼

The present article deals principally with certain legal aspects concerning the application of the New Guidelines on State aid for rescuing and restructuring firms in difficulty. The EU Commission adopted the New Guidelines on July 9, 2014, after a consultation on draft guidelines launched on 5 November 2013. The New Guidelines entered into force on 1 August 2014. It will apply until 31 December 2020. The New Guidelines are replacing a set of rules on rescue and restructuring of companies that have been in force since the 1990’s. Actually, the original guidelines on the subject matter were adopted by the EU Commission in 1994. In 1999, the EU Commission issued an amended version of the guidelines. Then, in 2004, an additional version of the guidelines followed. The revision of the 2004 guidelines, which were originally due to expire in 2009, was postponed a number of times as a result of the financial crisis, during which the EU Commission applied a special rescue and restructuring regime for the financial sector. The initial idea consisted of adopting the new rescue and restructuring rules applicable to both the financial sector and the real economy. Finally, the New Guidelines only apply to non-financial firms in difficulty. However, the New Guidelines drew on all of that work, as well as on the basis of the EU Commission’s experience in applying the pre-existing rules and in assessing rescue and restructuring aid for banks during the crisis. Hence, the Commission has considerably tightened the conditions under which rescue and restructuring aid may be approved under the New Guidelines.

Sažetak ▼

The aim of this study is to determine by the method of text analysis and present the most significant legislation which regulates the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, intended for implementation from 2014 to 2020. It was determined that the most significant legal acts that formulate the Common Agricultural Policy are: Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD); Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on the financing, management and monitoring of the Common Agricultural Policy; Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing rules for direct payments to farmers under support schemes within the framework of the common agricultural policy and Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products. In addition to the above, the legislation which governs the system of quality of food and agricultural products, as well as the legislation on organic production are of great importance for this EU policy. In the coming period the Republic of Serbia should harmonize its legislation with the legal framework, primarily the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Law on Subsidies in Agriculture and Rural Development, both with the appropriate by-laws.

Sažetak ▼

Modern world and the world of politics is a basic requirement for quality development environment that is ecology in it. If we want to recognize and assess the quality policy of a society, we will do that by identification and assessment the actual state of the environment of that society. In addition to the policy and its relationship to a healthy environment, we will also take a look and evaluate legal acts through which we will discuss the law and the facts of the environment In this regard, through the above paragraph, the goal of this work is based on facts over which points to the real situation of environmental pollution and the consequences that arise and that may arise with the emergence of threats to ecology through various forms of environmental pollution.

Sažetak ▼

In the international law and the internal law of the country, environmental law, as a relatively young branch of law, is an important factor in raising awareness of the importance of problems of environmental pollution and responsibilities of the each individual in the process of overcoming it. The climate change, as one of the greatest challenges that humanity faces in the early 21st century, influenced on the legal standardization of environmental, which this area deserves. This paper will discuss the international and the internal legal regulations in the field of radiation pollution, with emphasis on the recommendations and directives of the EU and the Republic of Serbia taken steps in this direction.

Sažetak ▼

Environmental pollution is an important problem of contemporary society. Therefore, there is a need to urgently address the problem by finding ways for the rational use of natural resources, keeping active demographic policy and unfolding and improving international cooperation in this field, for the survival of the Earth itself. This study should indicate how the environment is protected, with special emphasis on criminal law protection of the environment in Serbia and in the neighboring countries. Also, the study should highlight the importance of the legal regulation of environmental protection that has to prevent the commission of criminal offenses in this field. Every country that wants to be a full member of the EU must assume the obligations arising from the acquis communautaire (the Community acquis). As a candidate country, Serbia is harmonizing its regulations, and Chapter 27 – Environment is one of the most important chapters of the EU acquis.

Sažetak ▼

The author considers the question of the possibility and the need of the Republic of Serbia to ratify the New York Convention on the Law of The Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, 1997 (New York Convention). The paper starts with the general framework of the international legal regulation of water management and refers to the historical development of the rules of international water law. It provides an overview on the Helsinki rules and other international agreements in the field of water management of regional character, among which are several major international treaties of direct relevance to RS (Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, Convention on Cooperation for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Danube River, Framework Agreement on the Sava River Basin, etc.).The second part gives an overview of the objectives of the New York Convention and the basic rights and obligations arising from this international treaty. In particular it highlights the elements which show that the New York Conventions, in pertinent part, is the codification of modern rules of international water law and an attempt of certain elaboration of some of the rules. The part that relates to the issue of possibilities and need for the ratification of this international treaty suggests several factors that determine the position of the Republic of Serbia. These are: the state of water resources and their importance for RS, the state of the national legislation in the field of water resources management, European integration as a determinant of national policy in the field of water resources, and the importance of the process of harmonization of national legislation in the field of water resources management with EU regulations, the question of the membership of the EU Member States in the New York Convention, the status of the RS in other international agreements in the field of water management areas of relevance to the matter that is the subject matter of the New York Convention, as well as the rules of procedure of ratification (“approval”) of international treaties in the Republic of Serbia. The concluding part of the paper summarizes the possible reasons “for” and “against” the ratification of this international agreement. The author estimates that it would be useful for the RS to review the possibility of ratification of this international treaty.

Sažetak ▼

The subject of this research will include: the EU immigration policy, its Member States and the consequences which this public policy causes. Since this is about the feedback between immigration movements and public policy, the research issue will be directed not only at the influence the EU “migration” policy has on society EU members, but also on that how an immigration movements effect on the creation of public policies about immigration. With the deepening of the Global Financial crises, starting since 2008, the migration received momentum and its importance in the public policies of the EU countries grew. The timetable is located in a period from 1960 hither on and spatially includes all the EU members: old members (so called “Old Europe”) and its new members from Central and Eastern Europe (so called “New Europe”). Research goal is to: highlight the public relations of the EU policy and its members regarding immigration policy, to examine relations between new and old EU member-countries regarding immigration policy, to investigate the degree of support to the new immigration policy in “Old and New Europe”, to present conclusions about the adaptation and assimilation of immigrants in a new environment and eventually offer forecasting and give a potential solution.

Sažetak ▼

Natural and man-made disasters forced European Union to put more effort in strengthening capacities of civil protection. One of the steps is establishment of Community Civil Protection Mechanism. This Mechanism should strengthen capacities of European Union in its activities in prevention and elimination of consequences of different disasters. One of the reasons is the fact that disaster in one member state could “cross” boundaries of another member state. That means that disasters could hit several member states in the same time. Also, disaster that occurs in non-member state which is a neighbor of some of the member state could hit that or several member states. Consequences that are product of disaster could have effect on normal functioning of economics of member states. That can seriously undermine stabile functioning member states or whole European Union. Mechanism is established with the purpose to prevent that kind of possibilities or to enable rapid return to normal functioning of the member states after disasters.

Sažetak ▼

All member states of the European Union have the Integrated protection and rescue system with „SOS 112“ system, and today this is a technical requirement for countries that are seeking to become the EU members. Although this system is regulated by the Law on Emergency Situations (2009) and National strategy (2011), it has not been implemented in the Republic of Serbia. In this article the authors analyze the importance and benefits of this system and the main reason why it is not implemented so far.

Sažetak ▼

The subject of this paper is the current trends of the crime situation of adults in the Republic of Serbia from 2002 - 2013. The basic research question is: \"What is the trend of crime adults in the Republic of Serbia and in this regard, which are worrying trends?\" Access to research is mostly quantitative and partly qualitative. Research methods are statistical, causal and content analysis. The paper considers the external factors of crime in the Republic of Serbia, as well as political, economic, geostrategic, demographic and social environment and performed certain comparisons with indicators from the EU. Then, it is determined the general trend and geographical distribution of crime and the trend of certain groups of crimes and their connection with key causes. The paper is particularly drawn to the phenomenon of so-called \"Funnel\" through a relationship reported and convicted of the crime and dismissal of criminal reports. It is identified as particularly worrying trend of violent and drug crimes and crimes against traffic safety. Тhe problem that should be strongly highlighted presents corruption crime. In concluding considerations, there are recommendations of the strategic synergies of all the organs of formal social control in the fight against crime, strong determination of official policies, particularly in the adoption of the Law on examining the origin of assets that would be based on the principles of EU legislation.

Sažetak ▼

Juvenile delinquency remains a serious problem in the Republic of Serbia, and it appears in the environment. Statistical data indicate an escalation of juvenile crime, which can be interpreted as a specific, primarily, social and economic conditions. Except for 2010, when the number of the accused in relation to the number of reported juvenile delinquents was by far the lowest percentage, in all other years it increased over 70%, which indicates an increase in the efficiency of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Minors in this area. During the same period, the number of convicted juvenile offenders, in relation to the number of defendants, in each year prelatio percentage is over 70%, which also indicates that the competent prosecutors and judges for juveniles showed a solid efficiency within their jurisdiction. In addition, the visible increase in the number of convicted minors, where is the sanctioned under the age of minors is evident almost equal percentage of the imposed educational measures of warning and directing as well as educational measures of increased supervision, usually by a parent or guardian. In older juveniles, were dominant educational measures and in a slightly higher percentage an increased supervision, over the use of warning and directing. A number of institutional measures are slight and juvenile imprisonment is imposed in a negligible number of cases, especially in a period of 5 to 10 years, indicating a fairly mild and inconsistent penal policy towards juvenile who committed a greater number of serious crimes. To improve efficiency in combating juvenile delinquency and its prevention is essential over the High Judicial Council, Supreme Court of Cassation and the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration to initiate equalization and tighten the punitive policies toward juvenile perpetrators of the most serious crimes. Penal policy for returnees means introducing the principle of “zero tolerance” in the use of the principle of opportunity by the public prosecutor for juveniles. Insufficient implementation of corrective orders, the obligations and specific measures of medical character in practice should be reconsidered.

Sažetak ▼

Athletes often face challenges to combine their sporting career with education or work. The aim to succeed at the highest level of a sport demands intensive training and competitions at home and abroad, which can be difficult to reconcile with the challenges and restrictions in the educational system and the labour market. Not only high levels of motivation, commitment, resilience and responsibility from the athlete, but also special arrangements are needed to avoid the situation where talented and elite sportspeople are forced to choose between education and sport or work and sport. Such “dual career“ arrangements should be beneficial for athletes’ sporting careers, allow for education or work, promote the attainment of a new career after the sporting career, and protect and safeguard the position of athletes. Dual career arrangements are relatively recent in the majority of Member States and sports. In Member States where these arrangements have been developed for some time, they sometimes lack solid agreements between the sport system and either the educational sector or the labour market. They may also lack a legal framework or a sustainable governmental policy. Guidance could be helpful to develop and improve the conditions needed for sustainable dual career programmes allowing for tailor-made arrangements for talented and elite athletes throughout Europe, either in their position as a student-athlete or employee-athlete.

Sažetak ▼

In cases of violation of the right to honor and reputation, as a special type of personal rights, freedom of expression is in conflict with the above-mentioned right which protects the said personal image from groundless accusations, so its restrictions are justified under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The European Court of Human Rights never gives automatic predominance to either of these values (freedom of expression or the reputation of the person whom the information relates to), so its adjudication represents a complex analysis of all details of a particular case, weighed and measured individually in relation to all other circumstances, regardless of whether the freedom of expression was violated or its restrictions justified. The European Court of Human Rights formulated specific criteria for assessment of different cases, such as the rule that the Court’s deliberation is in relation to the necessity of restrictions of freedom of expression when the information is placed with regard to the government and politicians in context of debates on matters of public interest, and especially if it is a political debate or a statement made in Parliament or a similar body, or if it is a refutation of provocative statements by the person defamed. On the other hand, it is much easier to restrict freedom of expression when defamatory statements, namely slanderous allegations which violate someone’s right to honor and reputation, relate to judicial power or private persons and their lives. Main problems lie in applications to the European Court if there is no satisfactory definition of elements relevant for assessing whether freedom of expression, guaranteed by the European Convention, in Article 10, Paragraph 1, was violated. However, according to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, freedom of expression is respected, with restrictions provided in Article 10, Paragraph 2 of said Convention and some advances by the Court.

Sažetak ▼

European Union is an economic organization, but recently under its authority comes to development of the basic principles of human rights and democracy. Important steps in this direction were adoption of the Strategic Framework for human rights and democracy, the establishment of an EU Special Representative for Human Rights and the adoption of the EU Action plan on human rights and democracy 2012-2014. After positive results achieved by this Action plan, in 2015 EU adopted new Action plan on human rights and democracy 2015-2019. New EU action plan focuses on the most important challenges of human rights, especially the ban on discrimination, development of human rights at the local level, the prevention of human rights violations in conflicts, active participation of civil society organizations in the development of human rights and the achievement of cooperation in this field with other international organizations, primarily the UN.

Sažetak ▼

The Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its Opinion 2/13 on the compatibility of the Draft Agreement on the Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights with European Union law in December 2014. The Opinion received significant criticism from academics and other professionals for many reasons, amounting to its uncompromising stance on the incompatibility of the Draft Acession Agreement with the European Union law. So far, the issue of recognition of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights to judicial review in the area of foreign and security policy turned out to be the most disputable one. This issue will be analyzed in detail within this paper. The paper endeavors to answer the question posed by the Advocate General Kokott in her Opinion. It amounts to dilemma whether or not the principle of the autonomy of EU law can preclude the EU from recognizing the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights in the field of common foreign and security policy having in mind that the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights in the same area extends further than that of the Court of Justice of the EU. To that end, the notion of specific characteristics of the EU law and the impact made by the restricted jurisdiction of the Court of Justice in the given field to the anticipated accession is to be examined.