Meeting of the Slovenian Hub in Ljubljana

08.05.2019

On 8 May 2019 the annual meeting of the Slovenian Hub took place at the European Center for Dispute Resolution (ECDR), which operates as the Hub’s seat, in Ljubljana.

Reporter of the ELI’s project on ‘Detention of Asylum Seekers and Irregular Migrants and the Rule of Law Checklists and European Standards’ and President of the European Chapter of the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges, Boštjan Zalar, presented key challenges for courts and judges when implementing standards in detention cases. Several professors of constitutional, civil and international public law from the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana as well as other prominent lawyers participated in the discussion which followed. Among other things, member of the UN Human Rights Committee Vasilka Sancin raised a relevant issue concerning the Statement, namely whether not only the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and of the Court of Justice of EU but also international jurisprudence should guide judges when considering applicable standards.

Distinguished participants also discussed the importance of the on-going ELI projects on Common Constitutional Traditions in Europe and Access to Digital Assets. Several law professors expressed their interest to contribute to the projects’ outputs.

President of ECDR and Chair of the Hub, Aleš Zalar, presented key judicial policy standards and principles concerning ELI’s project on ‘Statement on Relationship between Formal and Informal Justice through the Courts and ADR’. Zalar was a member of the ELI Team that drafted the Statement. Participants welcomed the recommended approach in Europe of integrating alternative dispute resolution procedures and, in particular mediation, into justice systems. Slovenia is the first EU Member State (since 2009) that mandated all courts of first and second instance to offer mediation to litigants. 

Having celebrated 100 years since the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana was established this year, the leadership of that Faculty expressed an interest in co-organising, alongside the ECDR, the seat of ELI’s Slovenian Hub, a future ELI Annual Conference.  

At the end of the meeting participants took stock of the Hub’s activities over the past year as was organised and implemented by its members and expressed their appreciation and support for the work done by the ECDR. 

More information is available here (in Slovenian).