Three Judiciary Laws Bundled Into 59-Item Parliament Agenda
Changes to the laws on judges, prosecutors and the Judicial Academy have been folded into a 59-item parliamentary agenda, as judicial assistants warn Academy training could become a job requirement.
Three laws changing how judges and public prosecutors are selected in Serbia were placed, without any special announcement, among the 59 items on the agenda of an extraordinary session of the National Assembly. The session was called at the request of 109 lawmakers by National Assembly Speaker Ana Brnabic and opened on August 24, 2026. Every item, from the budget rebalance to the changes to the judiciary laws, is being debated together in a single general discussion.
The changes concern the Law on Judges, the Law on the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Law on the Judicial Academy. The procedure was launched by the Ministry of Justice, headed by Nenad Vujic, on July 13, 2026, and the proposals were sent to the National Assembly four days later, on July 17. Public hearings did not take place until mid-August, in the middle of the summer holiday season: on the 18th in Kragujevac, the 19th in Nis, the 20th in Novi Sad and the 21st in Belgrade.
The Judicial Assistants Association of Serbia said on August 24, in a statement on the public hearings, that the format of the debate had not been balanced. “Representatives of the political authorities had unlimited time to defend their proposals,” the Association said, adding that the other participants had at most ten minutes each to explain their objections. In an earlier statement, issued on July 17 when the proposals entered the parliamentary procedure, the Association had warned about the substance of the changes:
“The bodies envisaged by the Constitution would no longer decide who can apply for judicial and prosecutorial positions.”
Under the proposed changes, completed training at the Judicial Academy becomes, in practice, a condition for access to judicial and prosecutorial office. The assessment of candidates’ qualifications shifts from the High Judicial Council and the High Prosecutorial Council to the Academy, while the role of both councils, which the Constitution designates as responsible for selecting holders of judicial office, would be reduced to a formality.
A similar concept already failed once before the Constitutional Court of Serbia, which ruled in 2014 that provisions favoring Judicial Academy graduates were not in line with the Constitution. Even after that ruling, the High Judicial Council repeatedly spoke out against the idea of a single entry point into the judiciary.
On August 25, a day after the extraordinary session opened, the Association issued a new statement on the three laws entering the parliamentary procedure. It reiterated that the proposed changes do not address the system’s real problems: staff shortages, the length of court proceedings and citizens’ access to justice. The extraordinary session, with its 59-item agenda, was still under way, and no date had yet been set for lawmakers to vote on the judiciary package.
