ABOUT THE PROJECT
”Strengthening Serbian judiciary by improving judicial assistants positions and streamlining administrative procedures” is an research and development project funded by the USAID Rule of Law Project. Through numerous activities, the project aims to provide the professional public with insight into the current position of judicial assistants, to propose modalities for improving their position through the introduction of career advancement, special training and evaluation, to identify laws and administrative procedures that can be changed for more efficient courts and contributions. strategic documents in the judiciary, as well as changes to the set of judicial laws after the adoption of amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia.
The direct beneficiaries of the program are assistant judges, judges and citizens who will be provided with more efficient access to justice. During its duration, the project will pay special attention to the dissemination of information to the general public, primarily students, professional and other non-governmental organizations that can use the results of the project to support their own work.
CONTEXT
The rule of law is one of the fundamental values on which the EU is based and one of the key factors for peace and stability, social and economic development, legal security and incentives for economic growth. National Judicial Reform Strategy 2013-2018. recognizes the problems facing our judiciary, including inefficiency as a key challenge, resulting in a significant number of old cases and difficult access to justice.
The current position of judicial assistants differs in practice due to the variety of tasks they perform, as well as different conditions of promotion, which further complicates their position and affects the untapped potential of their work performed by judicial assistants.
These problems affect not only more than 1,500 judicial assistants and trainees, but also indirectly affect judges, courts and court presidents, and in particular the efficiency of the judiciary, which affects citizens and businesses.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The project seeks to help improve the position of judicial assistants in the courts by proposing a detailed and sustainable career path that will enable them to take greater responsibility in their work, visibility and importance in the system. By taking on a larger scope of administrative tasks from the judges themselves, it will allow judges more time to deal with the trial and the merits of the dispute, thus creating a more efficient and economical judiciary.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
Analysis of existing research on the current position of judicial assistants in Serbia
Exploring the attitudes of judges about the current position of assistant judges as well as the steps that need to be taken to improve their position
Development of a comprehensive study that will provide recommendations on the modalities of improving the position of assistant judges, as well as streamlining administrative procedures
Public advocacy for the improvement of the position of judicial assistants through the promotion of the study and dialogue with relevant state institutions and representatives of the non-governmental sector
PROJECT RESULTS
Dear colleagues,
We are extremely pleased to inform you about the successful implementation of the project “Improvement of Justice in Serbia” funded by the USAID Rule of Law Project.
The project was launched to help improve the position of judicial assistants in the courts by proposing a detailed and sustainable career path that will allow them to take greater responsibility in their work, visibility and importance in the system. The project team was led by Dr. Vanja Bajović, the project experts were Ana Knežević Bojović and Jelena Kostić, the project coordinator was Nikola Maksimović, while the financial director was Marija Veličković.
The project based its findings on surveys and direct interviews with 64 judges and provided a comprehensive picture of the current position of assistant judges, proposed modalities to improve their position through the introduction of a clear system of career advancement, special training and performance evaluation, and identified legal and administrative procedures that need to be changed for the more efficient functioning of the judiciary, with a proposal to amend a set of judicial laws in order to improve the position of assistant judges.
The final result of the project “Analysis of the position of judicial assistants in the Republic of Serbia with recommendations for its improvement” in Serbian and English can be read and downloaded from the following links:
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the project team on behalf of the Belgrade Conference of Lawyers as well as the partners from the USAID Rule of Law Project (www.rolps.org) who were a great support and enabled the project to be successfully implemented.