On the 3rd of December 2015, at the Holiday Inn in Skopje, a promotion of the publication “Unifying the court practice in Macedonia: possibilities vs. challenges” was held.
This event is part of the project “Supporting the establishment of unified court practice in the Macedonian legal system” that is implemented by the Center for Legal Research and Analysis and supported by the British Embassy Skopje.
The event was attended by more than 30 representatives of relevant institutions and organizations.
The event was opened by Lidija Stojkova Zafirovska, President of the Center for Legal Research and Analysis, noting that the issue of unification of court practice in Macedonia has been identified and emerged as essential for a while now, not only for the courts but also between all that involved in the process, the expert public and most of all the citizens. Furthermore, she added that one of the main reasons why the Center for Legal Research and Analysis is determined to deal with this topic is that just judges repeatedly have emphasized the need for additional clarification and guidance on the issue of court practice, and this project aims to provide support to these efforts.
The Minister of Justice Adnan Jashari, named the analysis as the initial act ant the beginning of further action to increase the importance of court practice in our legal system. He emphasized the importance of the Supreme Court as the highest court in the country, providing consistency in the application of laws by the courts, through adopting principal standings and legal opinions on certain legal issues which lead to improvement of judicial practice and ensure legal security of citizens and therefore return the trust in the justice system.
The British Ambassador in Macedonia, Charles Garrett, referred to this event as an opportunity to mark an important milestone in the project, which targets changes in the judiciary in Macedonia. He noted that this event is beneficial not only to the stakeholders in the judicial system, but to all citizens of the state, because building a stronger judicial system is essential for the country’s democracy. He concluded that the UK is a friend of the Republic of Macedonia more than two decades, and that it will continue to support the cooperation, primary in the field of judiciary, human rights and democracy, which have always been of particular importance.
The analysis was presented by the CLRA national experts, Aleksandar Godjo, a lawyer from Ohrid and Atanas Georgiesvki, a lawyer from Skopje. Both experts worked closely with Sir Robin Auld from the Slynn Foundation and Peter Gjortler, a former judge of the High Court in Denmark, a former lawyer and now a lecturer at the Law School in Riga. They emphasized the importance of a unified court practice in Macedonia and the need for it and stressed out that the actual timing of the implementation of this project is positive.
After the presentations, in the part dedicated about discussion, the representatives from the Supreme Court, Appeal Court Skopje, Higher Administrative Court and other relevant institutions and organizations positively evaluated the analysis that was presented and also stressed the need for this project, which is of great importance for the judiciary in the country.
The publication can be downloaded at the following link.