CITIZENS (LAY JUDGES) IN LITIGATION PROCEDURE

Abstract

At the end of 2009. Serbian Parliament passed the Ammendments to the Litigation Procedure Act. The purpose of these Ammendments was to harmonize 2004 Litigation Procedure Act with 2006 Serbian Constitution. Some of those changes were radical. Although the participation of lay judges is guaranteed by Constitution, those ammendments radically reduced the number of cases that are to be trialed by panel. Whenever a party proposes trial by single judge if the other party doesn´t object, the agreement on trial by judge sitting alone has been made. If there is a joinder of partys and one party makes such proposal, the others have to object, otherwise their silence will be considered as approval. The ammendments to the Serbian Litigation Procedure Act showed clear tendency of lawmakers towards elimination of lay judges from litigation procedure.