Luka Anđelković
Judicial trainee, Judicial Academy of Republic of Serbia
Scholarship: Summer Course on Strategic Litigation (124B06)
Trier, 26 – 28 June 2024
“Strategic lawsuits against public participation have recently been recognized as a phenomenon in Serbia so it was important for me to learn how they should be legally regulated. Participation in this course gave me the opportunity to exchange ideas and experience with colleagues from other European countries.”
11/07/2024
- Q & A with Luka Anđelković
Your current occupation and country of work?
My name is Luka Anđelković and I am a judicial trainee of the Judicial Academy of Republic of Serbia. I have finished initial training for judges and I am waiting to be appointed as a judge. Currently, I am working in the civil division of the first instance court in Niš, Serbia, and I mostly deal with general civil law cases.
How do you use European law in your work?
As Serbia is still a candidate country for the EU, I do not have the possibility to apply EU law in my everyday work. However, Serbian law is constantly in the process of harmonisation with EU law, so standards of legal protection are generally similar. Hopefully, when Serbia becomes a EU member state, I will be in position to directly apply EU law standards as a judge in Serbia. On the other hand, case-law of the European Court of Human Rights has had a great impact on Serbian legislations and jurisprudence. For example, in absence of relevant domestic provisions, I have directly applied case-law of ECtHR in cases concerning limitation of property rights as a result of land planning acts.
How have you benefitted from the scholarship and the knowledge gained?
The Summer Course on Strategic Litigation was a great experience for me as it gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge concerning EU law in some new areas. Topics such as climate change litigation and protection of human rights in global supply chains are rarely discussed in my country, so this course was a unique chance for me to learn about them. On the other hand, strategic lawsuits against public participation have recently been recognized as a phenomenon in Serbia so it was important for me to learn how they should be legally regulated. In addition, there is a need for some sort of regulation of collective redress actions in Serbia and it was very interesting to find out how different European countries treat these issues. Finally, participation in this course gave me the opportunity to exchange ideas and experience with colleagues from other European countries.
I was honoured to be granted this scholarship, and I have already recommended ERA courses to my colleagues.
