The team of the Judicial Academy is the vice-champion in the THEMIS 2020 competition
The team of the Judicial Academy of Serbia competed in the semi-finals even with 27 teams of Judicial Academies from all over Europe, and in the finals, which was dedicated to ’’The Right to Access to Justice’’ has among 8 teams fought for a remarkable second place. In addition to the Serbian, the Italian and Hungarian teams, as well as three teams from France and two teams from Portugal, won a place in the finals. First place in this year’s competition went to the team of Portugal. This year’s competition was held entirely online due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The finals consisted of three parts. The first part is the preparation of a video presentation through which was necessary to do a study of the obtained case and take an argumentative possition oposite to the other team, with which a debate will follow in the third part. Case study was done from the perspective of protecting the right to a fair and public trial before an independent and impartial court, European standards and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in this field. The second part is the preparation of a paper- report on a practical legal issue in the form of an extrodinary legal remedy to the Supreme Court, through which, in addition to the European Convention on Human Rights and practice of the European Court in Strasbourg, the relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and the Venice Commission was presented. The third part consisted of the debate with the French team III on a hypothetical case that both teams processed throuh their video presentations, as well as from inteviews with members of the jury consisting of a former judge at the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Belgium, a judge of the Croatian Constitutional Court and an international expert from Poland and program manager of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Human Rights from France. The jury especially praised the Serbian team for the video presentation of the hypothetical case, as well as the legal arguments presented in the written paper.
Source: Judicial Academy
In the semi-finals of the competition held in July this year, the team from Serbia, led by judge Mirjana Ilić, won second place in the semi-final group dedicated to ’’Judicial Ethics and Professional Conduct’’. On that occasion, the Serbian team wrote and presented a paper ’’Judicial Ethics: Balancing Freedom of Speech and Impartiality’’ through a video presentation. Within this part of the competition, the Serbian team participated in a debate with the French team II, which won third place in the finals.
On behalf of the Judicial Academy, the Serbian team was supported in the work organization, preparation and recording of video material by Mirjana Golubović, Head of the Department for Special Knowledge and Skills of the Judicial Academy, and Maja Prelić Simović, Deputy Director of the Judicial Academy.
The main objective of the THEMIS competition is to bring together future magistrates from different European countries during the period of initial training in order to enable them to share common values and exchange new experiences. The THEMIS competition is a forum for discussion on European and international legal topics and an opportunity to encourage the development of critical thinking and communication skills for future magistrates.
