INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE SERBIAN CONSTITUTION AND PROPOSED AMENDMENTS FROM 2018 – FAKE MONISM?

ZDRAVKOVIĆ Ana (Doktorand Pravnog fakulteta Univerziteta u Beogradu), ana.zdravkovic@ius.bg.ac.rs

The informal process of amending the Serbian Constitution regarding the judiciary started in 2017 when the Ministry of Justice called on the representatives of the judicial profession and civil society to submit their proposals for amendments. Since then, various issues that have arisen during the process were debated and written about, but not the attitude of the courts and judges towards international law. Therefore, the paper reincarnates the discussion on what are generally accepted rules of international law and what is their position in the current Constitution, and what is the status of international law under the Constitution in general. Bearing in mind that the Constitution is changing in order to fulfil the conditions for the accession of Serbia to the European Union, it is important that the Constitution takes a clear stand towards the sources of international law and thus encourage judges to consider and apply international law continuously. However, it would be rather difficult to expect that from judges if the provision according to which judges apply generally accepted rules of international law was to be eliminated from the Constitution. Considering that the formal proposal for amending the Constitution was submitted only in November 2018, the paper seeks to point out the significance of the said provision and urges that solutions to the problems arise in the upcoming process.

Keywords: Generally accepted rules of International law. The relationship between Domestic and International law. The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia from 2006. The Amendments to the Constitution from 2018.