By winning the second place in semi-final group, the Serbian team advanced to the finals of the THEMIS COMPETITION 2020 which is scheduled for November in Bonn. On that occasion, the Serbian team will meet with colleagues from Italy and France.

The semi-final competition was supposed to be held in Barcelona, from July 7 to 10, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, this time the teams competed online. This type of competition was more challenging, because each team, in addition to written work, had to design and prepare its video presentation, and finally answer the questions of the opposing teams and members of the jury via a video link. The competition was held in English.

The Serbian team wrote and presented a paper "Judicial Ethics: Balancing Freedom of Speech and Impartiality". It won the sympathy of the jury, both for the universality of the topic and for the originality of the way how the ethical issues were considered. The video presentation in which, inter alia, the European standards in this field and relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights were presented, was especially praised. Furthermore, the paper of the Serbian team, as one of the best written papers, was selected by the jury members to be published in the official EJTN publication, the THEMIS Annual Journal..  

The THEMIS Competitions every year bring together future magistrates from judicial academies across Europe that compete in the categories of civil, criminal and family law as well as judicial ethics and access to justice. This year the competition was great so the success is even more significant. In addition to Serbia, Judicial Academies from Hungary, Poland, France (two teams), Latvia (two teams), Estonia, Romania, Portugal (two teams), Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Albania and Spain have been competed.   

Video presentation of the work of the Serbian team