THE PROCESS OF HARMONIZATION OF SERBIAN LEGAL SYSTEM WITH THE EURO-PEAN UNION’S ACQUIS – CURRENT STATE, PROBLEMS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Harmonization of the legal system of the Republic of Serbia with the European Union’s acquis is one of country’s fundamental commitments on its way to the EU membership. In addition to being defined by a ratified international treaty (Article 72 of the Stabilization and Association Agreement), harmonization with EU law enhances the development of Serbia’s legal, economic and political system. Bringing domestic law into line with EU’s acquis law would largely be necessary even if membership in the EU was not defined as country’s fundamental political objective. The process of harmonization involves, on the one hand, the complex interaction of different state bodies, civil society and EU institutions; on the other hand, this complexity is not accompanied by a precise and coherent normative framework and there are numerous contradictions and gaps that affect the quality of the adopted legislation and its implementation. After analyzing the basic characteristics of the process of harmonization of national legal system with EU law (Chapter 2), the objective of this paper is to focus on the difficulties in this process (Chapter 3) and to suggest some ways of overcoming them (Chapter 4).