Serbian Legislation Research Articles

Agreements between public prosecutor and defendant

The process of alignment of the Serbian legislation with the legal standards of the European Union has led to implementation of a number of legal institutes from the comparative law into the criminal procedure law of our country. One such institute is the agreement on consensual ways of terminating criminal proceedings. The agreements of the parties in the criminal procedure draw considerable attention and cause disputes among scientific and professional circles both in continental and Anglo-Saxon legal system, since the primary objective of law and justice should be unbiased and impartial determination of factual truth so that no innocent person would be convicted and the appropriate criminal sanctions would be imposed upon the perpetrator of a criminal offence. This paper analyses the agreements between a public prosecutor and a defendant, which emerged through the reform processes of the Serbian criminal proceedings. In this respect, the first part of this paper lays out the agreement on admission of committing a criminal act (formerly pleading guilty), the second presents the agreement on the testimony of the defendant, and the third - the agreement on the testimony of the convicted person. Although the agreements refer to the same subject, the distinction has to be made between the agreement on the admission of a criminal act, which includes the penal agreement and the indictment, and on the other hand the other two types of agreements on the testimony of the defendant and the convicted person. These are process institutes. In the case of agreement on the admission of a criminal offense, they speed up criminal proceedings and make them more efficient. In the case of agreement on testimony, they facilitate argumentation on the part of a public prosecutor for the most serious crimes that are by definition difficult to prove or their proving is associated with huge difficulties. The bargaining means used is improving the position of the defendant whose cooperation is rewarded with a more lenient criminal sanction.

Bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) and hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae) pollinators in Pannonian habitats of Serbia, with a description of a new Eumerus Meigen species (Syrphidae).

The diversity of bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) and hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae) pollinators from ten localities in Vojvodina, Serbia was surveyed. Among different types of Pannonian habitat (grasslands, heathland and scrub, woodland and forest habitats) all localities were categorised as forest and steppe. They were in protected areas, mostly undisturbed by human activity. Censuses of pollinators took place from 30 March to 10 October, 2014. We recorded 218 pollinator species; 135 bee species (42 Halictidae; 32 Apidae; 29 Andrenidae; 24 Megachilidae; 7 Colletidae; 1 Melittidae) and 83 species of hoverflies. We describe a new species of hoverfly, Eumerus pannonicus sp. nov., and compare it to other similar species. Based on our study, the Special Nature Reserve of Pašnjaci Velike Droplje is critical for the conservation of this new Eumerus-being only found at this locality-and other species such as Chrysotoxum lineare (Zetterstedt), which is rare in Europe and protected under Serbian legislation. The highest numbers of bee species were recorded in the Deliblato and Subotica sand areas (40 and 32, respectively), while Fruška Gora Mountain and the Vršac Mountains harboured the highest number of hoverfly species.

The adaptive boundary approach for exposure assessment in a broadband EMF monitoring

Abstract The boundary approach for the assessment of daily exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) has been recently proposed for the continuous and broadband EMF monitoring of the Serbian Electromagnetic Field Monitoring Network – SEMONT. This approach is based on the determination of the daily upper and lower exposure boundaries, combining data of the continuous in situ EMF monitoring in a broadband frequency range and the minimal and maximal prescribed reference levels. The real exposure is positioned between these boundaries. In this paper, the enhancement of the boundary approach is presented. By adjusting the existing boundaries and reducing the difference between them, the precision of the daily exposure assessment in the SEMONT system has been improved. The frequency selective measurement has been used to determine the frequencies on which EMF sources radiate over a particular area and in situ location. Consequently, the new minimal and maximal reference levels can be selected; these are suitable for a particular in situ location and should be used for the calculation of exposure boundaries on that location. A simple in situ test measurement of the high-frequency electric field strength was performed, in order to verify the proposed adaptive boundary approach. The analysis shows that this approach attained reduction in boundaries difference of 36.25%, regarding the Serbian legislation, resulting with the increased precision of the daily exposure assessment for the broadband EMF monitoring.

Životna sredina - opasnosti i pravna zaštita / Human Environment ‒ Risks and Legal Protection

The most relevant factors that affect climate are astronomic cycles ant their effects on planet Earth and Earth’s orbit around the Sun. They have impact on the occurrence of glacial and interglacial periods at generally 100.000-year frequencies, which were affected by orbital shape variations and effects of greenhouse gases.The youngest geological epoch of the geological history of Earth is Holocene (started with warming) that began approximately 11.000 years BP. In that epoch, the shape of Earth’s orbit around the Sun was nearly circular, close to a perfect circle, and the seasonal contrast was less severe, due to decreased tilt of Earth’s axis from the plane of its orbit around the Sun. However, most scientists are arguing that the causes of rapid climate change are rooted in human activity, and not in its internal orbital variations. The main causes of global warming are increased level of carbon dioxide, but also of methane and chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. These gases are responsible for the greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion in stratosphere and rapid global warming. In order to set up the legal framework of environmental protection, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment has adopted Stockholm Declaration in June 16, 1972. About twenty industrial states have ratified in 1987 the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which has undergone many revisions by London Convention (1990), Copenhagen Accord (1992), Vienna Convention (1995), Kyoto Protocol (1997) and the Paris Agreement ‒ an international universal agreement on climate adopted at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference (COP21). Environmental protection in the European Union is provided for by its primary and secondary law, and the most EU environmental regulations were implemented in the Serbian legislation.

Impact of a New Concept of Universal Service Obligations on Revenue Increase in the Post of Serbia

The European postal directives and Serbian legislation as well define the quality standards for universal service obligations at the aggregate level, i.e. for all postal items transferred by the postal operator. This paper proposes a new concept where the transit time is defined by the customer and specified for each shipment. The paper considers three different models of this new concept. However, the one where a customer could choose between two alternatives: D+1 and D+3 transfer, is analysed in details. By using the attitudes of examined customers, forecasting methods and analysis of revenues from the past, it is assessed at what price the new postal service should be offered to achieve the highest revenue. The proposed methodology was tested and verified in the case of the Post of Serbia. The results indicate that the best would be to offer the service D+1 at the 40% increased price compared to the existing prices.

Application of the reverse-charge mechanism in the field of construction

Amendments to the Law on Value Added Tax from 2012 introduced the application of the reverse-charge mechanism into Serbian legislation in the construction industry. Subsequent changes from 2015 have expanded the scope of the reverse-charge mechanism in the construction industry, and one of the reasons were uncertainties that arose while applying the said mechanism in former practice. Namely, the main concern was whether a given supply should be treated as a supply from the construction industry for the purposes of VAT or not, under the applicable rules. However, the abovementioned changes have further complicated the situation, significantly increased legal uncertainty and additionally burdened VAT-payers (as well as the Ministry of Finance itself, which drafted the new provision) due to the fact that there is a need to interpret, on a daily basis essentially, who is liable to compute VAT for a vast variety of supplies that might be deemed as supplies from the construction industry. Furthermore, the (official) reasons for introducing the reverse-charge mechanism are not entirely in line with the reasons for which this mechanism is used within the EU. Therefore potential changes should be considered regarding the application of the said mechanism in the construction industry on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

Consumer protection in creditor-debtor relations

The capitalist financial market is governed by terms and conditions imposed by large banking corporations and institutions. In creditor-debtor relations, the creditor (lender, lessor) is in a dominant economic and legal position at the moment of entering into a credit agreement, which enables him to impose different terms and conditions upon the debtor (borrower, lessee) and introduce unfair contractual clauses. Therefore, the legislator and government institutions have to protect debtors (consumers) as credit beneficiaries from such credit terms and conditions that unfairly aggravate the debtors legal position. In this article, the author analyzes the legal position of subjects of credit relations, with particular reference to the legislative provisions governing the protection of the debtor (consumer) as an economically and legally dependant contracting party. Apart from being significantly affected by financial market reforms and changes in the mortgage legislation, the legal position of debtors (consumers) has been additionally aggravated in Serbian legislation in the past decade. After discussing the creditor-debtor relations, the author focuses on the issue of establishing a balance of interests; the balance of the creditor and the debtor interests may be achieved by enabling the creditor to keep the financial incentive (earnings form the interest rate) and obliging the debtor (credit-user) to provide legal certainty and protection against unfair contractual clauses.

Legal status and independence of the commission of securities in the Republic of Serbia

The Commission for Securities is a regulatory authority in the capital market of the Republic of Serbia. It ensures safety and legality of financial transactions in the capital market, supervises the participants in financial transactions, and provides for a proper and consistent implementation of the legal provisions aimed at regulating trade in the financial markets. In the circumstances of global financial crisis, the legal status and competences of the Commission for Securities have been updated in order to keep up with the global trends in this area. In that context, the research in this paper is primary aimed at analyzing the current situation on the capital markets and the status of the Commission for Securities in Serbian legislation. The paper first focuses on analyzing the legal position, autonomy and independence of the Commission. In particular, the author discusses the importance of introducing control over the financial market participants by instituting a special regulatory body in the Serbian capital market. The author points out to the basic issues pertaining to the Commission status and analyzes each segment of its institutional independence, including its personnel, financial and operative independence. In addition, the author provides a comparative law overview of legal solutions related to specific issues in the field of independence of this regulatory authority, including the legislation envisaged in the neighbouring countries and common law countries.

Religious education in public schools and religious identity in post-communist Serbia

The author analyses types of religious education in European and Serbian state-run schools searching for an innovative approach to existing classifications. He suggests four criteria to differ and categorize types of religious education in public schools, claiming that the actual taxonomy is often insufficient, inconsistent or perplexed (having usually been based upon one or two elements). He proposes categorization which encompasses point of view and interests of tax payers, of the politics, of the pupils and of the religious teachers. More criteria could lead to a better assessment of particular system of religious education. He also suggests that, apart from usual categorization in confessional and non-confessional religious education, it would be useful to introduce categories like 'mostly confessional' and 'mostly non-confessional', as clear-cut models are very rare. In addition to this he offers arguments why 'cognitive' type of religious education would be more proper label instead of 'non-confessional'. Further on the author examines controversies, disputes and manner of reintroduction of religious instruction in Serbian legislation after the fall of the communist regime in 2000 and presents the current situation, including very recent changes considering curricula. He points to some very distinctive features of religious education model in Serbia which could be of interest in comparative perspective, particularly in the time when many states in Europe tend to improve their religious education system. Finally, he points to importance of religious education in building religious identity of young generations in post-communist countries, and differs two types of religious identity - perceptive (intuitive) and cognitive (rational). He concludes that 'educating into religion' has to exist for some time in post-communist countries due to historical circumstances (within more or less confessional model). Additionally, he finds that it should be only gradually transformed into 'educating about religion' and 'education from religion' pattern, fostering cognitive religious identity to strengthen parallel with the perceptive one.

The SEMONT continuous monitoring of daily EMF exposure in an open area environment

Wireless networks traffic has experienced a considerable growth in recent years. Likewise, it is to be expected that billions of objects will be connected to the Internet in years to come, many of them wirelessly. Such increase in a number of wireless connections and the inevitability of wireless communications in proximity of users highlight the healthcare concern on electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure. Thus, the intelligent monitoring systems, such as the Serbian Electromagnetic Field Monitoring Network-SEMONT-have been required to be developed and utilized for continuous and real-time EMF monitoring, as well as for the assessment of the potential in situ daily exposure of population. This paper presents the results of the SEMONT initial campaign of continuous monitoring of the high-frequency electric field strength over the campus of the University of Novi Sad, as an open area environment. Several locations, most frequently visited by the student population in their everyday activities, have been monitored during the rush hour in order to determine the fluctuation of daily exposure on this, usually considered, highly sensitive area. The results of monitoring suggest that potential exposure is far below the allowable limit, regarding reference levels prescribed by the Serbian legislation for the general population.

Some Quality Parameters of Dry Fermented Sausages (Čajna kobasica)

The aim of this study was to evaluate some quality parameters of dry fermented sausage (Čajna kobasica) from different producers from the market in Vojvodina. The investigated parameters were chemical composition and sensory properties of external appearance and/or condition of the packaging, appearance and composition of cut surface, color and stability of color, odour and taste and texture and/ or juiciness. The results showed that the chemical parameters were very variable but in an agreement with Serbian legislation. Sensory scores were different among different producers. Overall sensory quality of tested samples ranged from 3.37 to 4.34.

Legislation on employment in Serbia in the context of new circumstances in the world of work

In the past hundred years work has been carried out mainly in the form of permanent employment. At the end of a century significant social and economic changes led to destabilization of the current concept of bipolar - stable employment. Among other things, there is a large number of atypical forms of work engagement, which require a different approach to the organization of work and more flexible labour regulations. This paper presents changes in the world in the labor relations environment and new approach to labour relation legislation. It also analyzes the suitability of Serbian legislation on labor relations to contemporary working environment.

Securing of claims by means of fiduciary agreements in the Serbian law

Fiduciary agreements represent innominate legal affairs the basic function of which is to secure the trustor?s claims. Fiduciary security of claims is historically rooted in the Roman law institute "fiducia cum creditorecontracta". These contracts demonstrate numerous advantages in relation to most other forms of collateral security. The most prominent benefit is proved by the fact that, due to the transfer of the property title to the trustor in the moment of entering into agreement, the process of payment of the trustor?s claims is considerably accelerated and the level of legal security increased. However, this legal transaction is not regulated under the positive Serbian legislation, which leads to the fact that our courts often proclaim the fiduciary agreements null and void. This paper points to this rather significant issue and contains some proposals on how to successfully deal with it using the solutions similar to those found in other continental legal systems. In addition to the aforementioned arguments, the paper also presents other reasons proving that it would be advisable for our legislator to integrates fiduciary agreements into our positive legislation.

Testimony agreements of convicted person in the criminal procedure legislation of Republic of Serbia

Agreements between the public prosecutor and a defendant have been known in some comparative criminal legislation for many years, and in some of them, such as the United States, they represent the main support for the entire system. In the Serbian legislation, they appeared with the breakthrough of the consensual forms of resolving criminal cases. In the criminal procedure reform of Serbia, special attention was paid to the standardization of various types of agreements between the prosecutor and the defendant. The Serbian legislator has provided three types of agreements: plea bargaining, testimony agreement with the defendant and testimony agreement with convicted person. The authors in this paper deal with the latest kind of these agreements, which has been implemented in the more recent legislative changes in Serbia since certain provisions began applicable in early 2012 - before the full implementation of the integral law. This kind of agreement, together with the testimony agreement of the defendant, is an efficient means of detecting and proving organized and war crimes. The testimony of the convicted person is very important evidence in the proceedings in which they testify, making an efficient means of proving in the hands of the prosecutor. After introductory remarks, the authors devote attention primarily to the status of plea agreements with the defendant in the United States, as a country that is a cradle of the legal agreements between defendants and prosecutors. Then they explain the procedure of concluding with its integral elements, and the decisions that a court can make regarding the agreement, without neglecting a comparative experience. Agreement on the testimony of the convicted person brings a numerous specifics in the legislation, but some provisions are not clear and may give rise to dilemmas in the practice. Therefore, the authors choose to consider the provisions of this institute pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of particular solutions, emphasizing great importance of the convicted collaborators in the discovery and elucidation of crime in the cases which are dealt with by the office of public prosecutor of special jurisdiction.

10.5937/pravzap0-6103 = The right to home birth: A choice, not a coincidence: And some legal consequences

In this article, the authors deal with certain legal aspects of home birth, in particular as recognised by the European Court of Human Rights and from the perspective of present Serbian legislation. The number of women giving birth at their homes is still significantly lower than those wishing to give birth at a hospital, both in Serbia and in Europe. Even with that in mind, the authors assert that the state does not have the right to deny a woman her right to choose the circumstances and the environment in which she will give birth. By doing that the state breaches the woman's right to privacy, right to personal autonomy and right to self-determination in respect of her own body, which are all founded in the constitutionally guaranteed inviolability of the human personality. That is why the authors believe the state is obliged to provide the legitimacy to the woman's choice of the place of her child's birth. Moreover, the state should take a step further and enable the woman with accessible and professional medical assistance (of a midwife) in case she wishes to give birth at her home. Further on, the research into Serbian legislation and practice conducted by the authors and presented in this article, demonstrates that even though current Serbian legislation on birth registration expressly provides for registration of birth outside of medical institutions, that its implementation is not uniform across the state, leading to discrimination of these parents and their children, at least in some areas of Serbia. Unequal treatment in relation to registration of births which occurred outside of hospitals can be attributed to several factors, among which, the registrars' desire to prevent undesirable situations such as obduction of children or false registration of birth certainly cannot be underestimated. However, as the authors point out, this must not be at the expence of parents who, by practicing their right to choose the place of childbirth, choose that their children be born at their homes. Because of that, the authors particularly stress the need for thorough analysis of legislation - both in the area of health protection and birth registration - so that clearer regulation would ensure realisation of the right to choose the place of childbirth which the European Court of Human Rights declared to be an element of the right to privacy guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

10.5937/zrpfns48-6708 = Especially vulnerable witnesses

The subject of this article is the category of especially vulnerable witnesses in criminal procedure. The article is divided into sixth parts. The first part offers a review of various definitions of especially vulnerable witnesses in comparative law. The second focuses on the procedural protection of especially vulnerable witnesses in Serbian legislation. The third is concerned with the tactical rules of questioning of especially vulnerable witnesses. In the fourth part the author points to the importance of special services for providing assistance and support to especially vulnerable witnesses. The fifth part presents similarities and differences between protection of especially vulnerable witnesses and other forms of witness protection. The sixth part reflects on conclusions.

Criminal offence of extortion of confession in Serbian legislation

Extortion of confession is one of the criminal offences calling for constant reviewing and critical evaluation. As regards its legal nature, this offence is - in its character - a specific coercion. The offence is aimed against the inviolability of integrity of personality and respect for human dignity in criminal and any other proceedings, both of which have been elevated to the rank of constitutional principles. Extortion of confession actually constitutes abuse office, which means that it can be perpetrated only by an official and only in the discharge of official duty. An aggravated form of the offence comprises, among other things, extortion of confession from a defendant in criminal proceedings, an act committed typically by an authorized police officer. The introduction of prosecution-police investigation in criminal proceedings in the Republic of Serbia has additionally increased the risk of this type of extorting testimony. Basically, the same applies to the aggravated form of the offence of ill-treatment and torture, also committed through exceeding powers on the part of law enforcement officers using coercive means. Key words: criminal law, criminal proceedings, police officer, exceeding powers, coercion, extortion of confession, ill-treatment and torture.

Constitutionalization of judicial independence: In comparative law and in Serbian legislation

The aim of this paper is to point out that the guarantees of judicial independence have to be regulated by the Constitution as they create de iure framework for the independence of the judiciary in the rule of law system. The author is aware that the constitutional guarantees are per se insufficient and that their primary features may yield different effects depending on the political environment and cultural matrix in which they take effect. The judicial system operates in the circumstances of the separation of powers, where the independent judiciary is corroborated a guarantee of the rule of law. Hence, it is important to concurrently elaborate on the institutional and personal guarantees of judicial independence, focusing on the responsibility of the political authorities to create a relevant social environment for the operation of the independent judiciary as well as on the responsibility of the judiciary to independently exercise their judicial function. The author's intention in this paper is to provides a comparative analysis on the guarantees of independent judiciary and the minimum rules that constitute the cohesive core which serves as the common meeting grounds not only for the EU member states but also for all countries of the European-Continental legal system in their efforts to ensure the judicial independence as the primary condition for exercising the rule of law. The corpus of constitutional guarantees on independent judiciary includes the following elements: the judicial appointments and termination of a judicial office; the permanence of the judicial office and impartiality in decision-making processes; the professional responsibility and judicial immunity; as well as the recently established judicial councils, which have been given the constitutional authority to protect the independence of the judiciary.

International treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture as a basis for limiting intellectual property of plant breeders in Serbia

It is widely accepted that new plant varieties are protected as a form of intellectual property. Serbian legislation and international conventions protect new plant varieties, either through sui generis protection or by patent rights. However, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, also signed by Serbia, has endangered the rights of plant breeders in Serbia, because the greatest number of plant varieties in Serbia is not protected as intellectual property. On the other hand, the Treaty offers the possibility to natural and legal persons from other signatory countries to use new plant varieties of Serbian plant breeders. Seeing as the varieties are not protected, there is a possibility for the plant breeders' rights to be endangered. The goal of this paper is to try and consider the legal consequences, answering certain open questions regarding the protection of intellectual property in this field. A method of parallel comparison was used.

Hereditary position of a spouse in Serbian legislation

Hereditary position of a spouse in Serbian legislation