A decade ago, Serbia has carried out the reform of judicial control of public administration - by establishing the new Administrative Court. The expected results, however, have not been achieved and the problems that caused the reform have not been resolved. Therefore, a decade later, a new reform is in sight. The planned changes include establishing more administrative courts and introducing a two-instance administrative dispute. The aim of this paper is to discuss these changes, but in a slightly different way. Instead of their uncritical acceptance and justification by European legal standards, they are analysed having in mind the legal nature of the administrative dispute. Successful administrative dispute reform cannot be achieved if European legal standards are blindly accepted and copied literally from classical court proceedings. Only the legal nature of the administrative dispute and the features that make it special and different from the usual court disputes can lead us to a successful implementation of the changes.
The issue of territorial disputes is a problem of a large number of states. These problems exists in the EU and in countries candidate for accession to this organization. As to the former Yugoslav republics following the collapse of the common state, the problems are created in terms of determining the territory. The issue of borders after the dissolution of a federal state such as Yugoslavia, creating major problems that can be solved only by applying two basic principles - the principle of demarcation and the principle of self-determination of nation. In international law there is no general rule, according to which the retreating boundary between the states. The author deals with issues of particular territorial disputes in the EU and between the EU countries and countries of the Western Balkan. Practically, these disputes between EU countries have existed before, and have not been resolved to their joining the organization. Whether the EU can guarantee resolution of these disputes is one of the issues raised in the paper, given that many disputes are not settled in countries that are longer or shorter time-EU countries. The conclusion is that it can not, because there are no adequate tools for this so that all the leaves to the states in disputes.
This dissertation treats the competence of Constitutional courts in settling the disputes of jurisdictional conflicts, both in theoretical and historical as well as practical, sense. It is common knowledge that the Constitutional court is the most efficient mechanism for protecting the constitutionally determined separation of power. The role of the Constitutional Court is especially significant with regard to the fact that the separation of power does not exclude the possibility of interweaving jurisdiction of different levels of state power. By settling disputes of jurisdictional conflicts, the Constitutional Court gains competence for the determination of clear boundaries of state power organs in terms of their constitutional authorisation. Given the fact that the jurisdictional conflict is mainly motivated by political agenda, the Constitutional Court must settle an originally political dispute by implementing the constitutional norms. The jurisdictional conflicts are a common competence of Constitutional courts. They are a direct representation of the government, or the constitutionally determined separation of power. A distinction between horizontal and vertical disputes can consequently be made. Various factors cause these disputes, including the following: state power, government, political parties system, level of democratic development, the level of precision of constitutional norms determining the boundaries of state power, etc. The constitutional disputes of jurisdictional conflicts should, however, be thought of in a broader sense as well. The Constitution commonly views these disputes as a separate jurisdiction of Constitutional courts. If the disputes of jurisdictional conflicts are regarded as a factual violation of constitutionally proclaimed separation of power, then the other constitutional disputes can be seen as an infringement of the power separation principle as well. In that way the Constitutional court indirectly settles a competence dispute while simultaneously carrying out normative control, its basic duty. Assuming that the separation of power is based on the idea of preventing the abuse of state power by guaranteeing the fundamental rights and freedoms, one can say that, while deciding on the protection of rights and freedoms proclaimed by the Constitution, the Constitutional court indirectly protects the power separation principle. The matter of jurisdictional conflicts can decided upon by the court when the court is asked to give an interpretation of the constitutional provisions. If the fact that this jurisdiction is a necessary consequence of federal division of the state is exempted, one can say that in the countries without federal division the settling of competence disputes, also represents a separate jurisdiction of Constitutional courts. The guiding principle for all the countries was the fact that the abuse of power or the realisation of its separation (or balance) can only be reached through the operating system of an independent and unbiased institution, as the Constitutional court itself is. An analysis of various countries' Constitutions and the practice of Constitutional courts in settling competence disputes has shown that Constitutional courts have made a significant contribution to the realisation of power separation, especially in the transitional processes of non-democratic regimes to democratic ones. Naturally the real effects of the constitutional jurisprudence depend on the political climate-the relationship between the political institutions and the one these have with the Constitutional court, as well as their willingness to abide by its decisions-and this is a fact one should not neglect.
The development of both conventional and written legal rules that were governing the roots of the administration, has run in parallel with the development of the country. The development of legal state was going parallel with the development of constitutional state. The legal state can not be imagined without pandering Administration under the law, but precisely because of it stems judicial control of management, which is necessary for the full realization of the principle of legality and the protection of rights and legal interests of citizens. Administrative action presents a means to protect the rights and interests of citizens, but on the other hand it is also an effective tool for ensuring the legality of administrative operations. Pandering administration under the law is linked to the French Revolution from 1789, in this respect, France is a country that is the first to introduce an administrative dispute. The development of an administrative dispute in France can be followed through the occurrence and development of the State Council, which was formed during Napoleon time in 1799. The legal institutionalization of the administration is not done in the same way everywhere, in that sense we distinguish two big legal systems, Anglo-Saxon and European-continental. In Anglo- Saxon law legal institutionalization of the administration included the procuring administration under the legal norms of general law, management control exercised by courts of general jurisdiction. In the European-continental law legal institutionalization of the administration departs from pandering Administration under the legal standards that belong to a specific branch of law administrative law. In the European- continental system there is a difference between private and public law, and an important part of the legal regime are special administrative courts. The development of an administrative dispute actually juridical control of administration in Serbia can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century. Although Serbia has created very early the State Council following the example of France, in a formal sense the administrative dispute in Serbia was fully introduced by the Constitution from 1869. At our place administrative activities are controlled by the courts, which are an integral part of the judiciary and acting under special rules, rules of administrative law. Depending on the positive law of certain countries, the subject of administrative dispute is defined broadly or narrowly. According to French positive law the subject of administrative dispute may be not only single authoritative legal acts of administration, but also the general acts of administration - implementing regulations issued by the administration, as well as administrative objections. According to French positive law the subject of administrative dispute is defined very broadly, unlike the German and Austrian positive law, where an administrative dispute can not be conducted against all acts of general administration. Regarding that in the comparative law we meet a number of different solutions, we believe that in our country we should choose the one that would be the best way to provide protection for the rights of citizens. We lead the administrative dispute in the first place about the legality of final administrative act against other individual legal acts because of the silence of administration, and it may be decided on the request for the return of items and damages. The results of scientific studies will confirm the importance of the need that the subject of the administrative procedure should be complied with the case of an administrative dispute. All acts adopted in the administrative procedure should have directly open the way so the control of legality can be accomplished in administrative proceedings in front of the competent administrative court. What is certainly a major challenge is a control of the legality of administrative contracts. Extended subject of administrative dispute will strengthen the position of the parties in the administrative procedure, in order to guarantee them the quality of court protection in front of the Administrative Court.
This article's point of departure is that the national self-determination doctrine remains one of the most paradoxical, contested, but successful doctrines which has largely contributed to the shape of our existing international system of nation-states. It argues that the doctrine which is intended to safeguard peace and human dignity is and always has been at the heart of many conflicts. Starting with the tension between the universality of the national self-determination doctrine and the particularity of the national group whose interests it promotes, the article explores other paradoxes contained within this doctrine. They range from political and legitimacy challenges to the very nation-state it creates, through the violations of human rights contrary to its very meaning, to the fact that national self-determination doctrine, far from being a national issue, is actually an international affair. While not rejecting the doctrine, the paper concludes with the final (ninth) paradox that perhaps the success of this doctrine should not be measured by how many states it can produce, but how it can make the existing states a safe home for more self-differentiating national groups. Adapted from the source document.
Analysis of efficiency of (judicial) mediation in Serbia and other European countries (Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark) illuminates the causes of poor representation of this legal institution in our country. Analysis of mediation in Italy, culturally most closely resembling country to Serbia, indicates that a legalistic approach to the promotion and implementation of mediation, especially if it is heterogeneous, is not efficient. On the other hand, countries that have implemented a bottom-up approach ('first applied, and then regulate'), such as the Netherlands and Denmark, have developed efficient mediation system. Switzerland, a country that relied on an approach based on the promotion of culture of mediation, has a mediation system that has not been developed to the extent to the developed system of conciliation. In any case, the Italian experience has taught us that the regulation of mediation is not a sure path to success in the implementation of this legal institution; Swiss experience highlights the importance of developing a culture of peaceful settlement of disputes; Dutch and Danish experience emphasizes pragmatism in the promotion and implementation of mediation. Since Serbia lacks an efficient regulatory framework of mediation, culture of peaceful dispute settlement and pragmatism in implementation of this legal institution, it seems that the experiences, for the purpose of analysis, observed countries are more than useful.
The Mediation Act has been applied in the Republic of Serbia since 2005. In the past period, the application of this Act has pointed out to a number of drawbacks and deficiencies in the system of resolving disputes through mediation. The dominant features of the current mediation system are some inadequate legal solutions, poor organization and insufficient preparation of the courts to internalize mediation, failure to provide relevant information about mediation to litigants and other participants in the judicial process, insufficient judicial training and education of lawyers and parties on mediation and other ADR methods, etc. Considering that the primary purpose of mediation is to diminish the litigation caseload and reduce the costs of court proceedings, the basic goal of introducing mediation into the Serbian legal system has not been accomplished. In order to improve the mediation system, the Serbian authorities launched a public debate in 2010 on designing a new legislative act which would eliminate the shortcomings of previous act and improve the efficiency of mediation. After nearly four years, the extensive debate and confrontation of different mediation concepts led to adopting a new Draft Mediation Act in 2013. As compared to the applicable 2005 Mediation Act, the Draft Mediation Act contains some innovations, such as the enforceability of a mediation agreement under specific conditions and the opportunity of introducing mandatory mediation in some cases. In this paper, the author analyzes the above issues on the basis of findings of economic theory and the results of the empirical study on the efficiency of mediation in Serbia in civil matters. In this context, the author argues that the achievement of the above objectives (to reduce the caseload and legal costs] calls for establishing a sustainable mediation system. In addition to instituting good legal solutions (such as mandatory mediation], the system should be supported by joint efforts and financial resources of responsible institutions and individuals. In a nutshell, mediation may come to life only if the legislative efforts are accompanied by a large-scale social action aimed at promoting this form of dispute resolution.
In this paper the authors examine the dynamics of security relations of the three key security actors in the Euro-Atlantic area - NATO, Russia, and the European Union. Based on their findings, and using a comparative analysis of the actors' doctrinal and strategic documents, as well as their observations of contemporary challenges, risks and threats, the authors discuss if, and to what extent, their productive security cooperation is possible, or their positions are opposed in such a way that in short and medium terms only disputes or less or more open conflicts are likely to be expected between them. This leads to a conclusion that a majority of recognized security challenges, risks and threats are shared, as well as that these actors see each other not only as competitors but also as partners in the struggle against those challenges, risks and threats, which opens possibilities of security cooperation.
The Republic of Serbia represents an employer for civil servants and employees, for employees who perform tasks within the scope of state administration bodies, courts, public prosecutors' offices, for police officers as a separate category of civil servants, etc. The regulation of the labor legal status of these persons is also carried out through the conclusion of special collective agreements in addition to the normative. A significant part of the state administration is made up of public services that, by their significance and manner of carrying out tasks of general interest, as well as by the method of financing, represent the central level of the state that encompasses the entities which are responsible for the provision of predominantly non-market services which the state is obliged to provide in order to meet the general needs of its people. The concept of administration has been established as a profession of general interest. Administration carried out by the state authorities itself is viewed in a narrower sense, and when we look at the administration through public services or public administration, we have to bear in mind that non-state actors are also entrusted with administrative activities. Based on the nature of their work, state authorities have a significant administrative function in regulating tasks and prerequisites which are important for collective negotiations in the public sector. The state administration also carries out registration of social partners, tasks related to determining the representativeness of social partners, registration of collective agreements and decision-making on the extended effect of the collective agreement. Relevant authorities, councils, state administration boards and special organizations perform their activities through tripartite and bipartite social dialogue, and decisions are made by consensus. The state administration performs and ensures the performance of state functions important for collective negotiations in the public sector, conducts a procedure for obtaining the authority of representatives of state bodies and public services to start, negotiate and conclude a collective agreement. Also, the state administration has an active role in the process of registration of the collective agreements, as well as in the obligatory mediation and conciliation and arrangement of the minimum work process in activities of general interest. The state administration maintains the legal order and secures public interest through the procedure of concluding and applying collective agreements in the public sector. Through the realization of these activities, the participation of state entities in the conclusion of collective agreements opens the question of the legal nature of collective agreements, that is, leaves the possibility for the analysis and comparison of the collective agreement and the administrative contract. Collective agreement is a general act, but in its adoption, administrative-legal relationship is recognized as a significant relationship which is regulated by numerous norms of international and national law. Both contracts are concluded with the agreement of the contracting parties, and with the reduced authoritative function of the state administration. A particularly collective association of state bodies and public services can be considered as social acts that regulate rights, obligations and responsibilities from the employment of public sector employees, which contain mandatory and normative parts, but each is an autonomous source of labor law in the public sector.
The two construction ventures mirrored political currents and were affected by politics while themselves making politics. In the aftermath of the regime's backlash following the Croatian quest for more autonomy within the Yugoslav federation, the Cathedral was reduced in size and relocated to an inappropriate site. Builders of the St. Sava's church, meanwhile, defied recommendations by experts to adjust its style to the surroundings or change the location. Even though the authorities offered financial assistance with the construction permit, the Serb church in Split remained unfinished. In the late 1980s as ethnic tensions grew and the multiethnic country was on the brink of war and disintegration, leaders of the Serbian Orthodox Church and propaganda in the capital of Serbia Belgrade exploited the Split case as an evidence of discrimination against the Serbian ethnic minority in predominantly Catholic Croatia. The Serbian Church, utilizing the unfinished temple, also attempted to revive symbolically the ancient Byzantine/Roman disputes over the church community in the ancient city in order to imply that there existed a long tradition and "continuity" of religious disputes in this region. Yet, both the Croatian authorities and the Catholic Church sought to appease the Serbian church, rather than to accept the challenges. This case demonstrates that the Serbian Orthodox Church followed the militant course of the regime in Serbia, which was the principal firebrand of the 1991-95 Balkan war. (SOI : CSP: S. 126) + This article is built on primary sources that include the author's research in the offices of state commissions for relations with religious communities with numerous interviews carried out between 1985-1991. It examines church-state relations and interconfessional rivalry under communism in the former Yugoslav federation of six republics. Construction of new religious facilities, especially in case of building of significant edifices symbols of religious and ethnic identity, was a popular practice by which religious institutions animated the faithful, sought to break the isolation imposed upon them by the regime, and symbolically expressed resistance against the communist system, and finally, competed with one another in a society with three major religious institutions and over forty minor religious groups. The analysis tracks down coinciding processes of rebuilding of two significant churches symbols. One is a Serbian Orthodox memorial church dedicated to the chief Serb national saint Sava, built in neo-Byzantine style, and installed amidst a historic Romanesque block in the predominantly Croatian Catholic town of Split. The other church under construction was the city's co-Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, damaged in World War II
In this paper, the author points to the outdated textbook classification of states into three groups, according to whether they have carried out the codification of administrative procedure or not. The first group includes the states that have administrative procedures fully codified. The second group comprises the states with the so-called mixed systems, which have uncodified procedural regulations related to the administration, while the third group contains a few states that do not have administrative procedural regulations at all. The author analyzes recent changes in this highly dynamic field in order to specify general patterns, common characteristics and peculiarities of regulations of general administrative procedure in contemporary states. The paper especially points to the general acceptance of the concept of administrative act but also underscores the differences in its content in various legal systems. The author has identified and analyzed some smaller standalone trends, such as: the increasing complexity of administrative procedures along the lines of judicial procedures, and the most recent deviations from this trend; the increasing presence of administrative contracting and other forms of alternative dispute resolutions of administrative matters; and the growing insistence on the principle of citizens' participation in administrative proceedings. The goal of the analysis is to determine the degree of influence of the Global and European administrative law on the national regulations, to explore the activities of certain expert organizations bringing together a number of experts in the field of comparative administrative law, and to discuss the course of the latest regulations in this area.
Petar Rogulja's article "Before the Dawn" (1916) led to an intense debate about the organization of the Croatian Catholic Movement (Hrvatski katolicki pokret - HKP). He is important because he elaborated the ideology of the movement, which played an important role for Catholicism in the political life of Croatia. Rogulja and his supporters (the 'nacionalci' or 'nationalists') tried to reorganize he HKP into a "total system" (potpuni sistem). This meant that cultural and economic organizations were to be included as integral parts of a future political party. His opponents (the integralists or 'integralci') were not successful in attacking his policy. After the "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes", the first Yugoslavia, was formed (1918), the seniors of the Church organized their own political party - Hrvatska pucka stranka (HPS - Croatian Popular Party). The party claimed to represent "positive elements of the Christian congregation", but also claimed that it was "non-confessional". The seniors made a commitment to "interconfessionalism". The creation of the "Catholic Action - Katolicka akcija" (KA) by Pius XI. provided official support for those Catholics that did not support the policy direction taken by the HKP. Unlike the HKP, which was organized from below, that is to say, by the laity outside of the auspices of the Church hierarchy, the organization of the KA was initiated from above, by the Church hierarchy as a whole. The KA, as defined by the encyclical "Ubi arcano Dei" (1922), along with other acts of the Holy See and the Catholic Church hierarchy, was not to include organizations intending to achieve "mundane objectives", thus, political parties. A political party was at the heart of the HKP, but even though this was the case, Rogulja's supporters contributed to the organization of the KA. Though the KA was meant to be non-political, this did not mean that it was indifferent to politics generally, or to those who based their political activity on Christian/Catholic tenets. Seniors faithful to Rogulja's orientation believed that members of the KA would support their party in political matters. In any case, the leaders of the Catholic Church throughout Croatian lands never obligated its members to support the HPS. Opponents of the seniors' political party, mainly adherents of the Croatian Union of the Eagle (1923), accused them of anti-clericalism. The political disputes among Catholic activists in Croatia was brought to an end, but not resolved, by the Yugoslav Monarch's suspension of the Vidovdan constitution in 1929, at which time political parties where outlawed. (SOI : CSP: S. 455f.)
