Public Attorney's Office of the Republic of Serbia

Coat of arms of Serbia

The Law on Public Attorney’s Office (LoPAO) („Official Herald of the Republic of Serbia” no. 43/91) determines that the measures of legal protection of rights and interests of the Republic of Serbia in private law matters are undertaken by The Public Attorney’s Office (Serbian: Републичко јавно правобранилаштво / Republičko javno pravobranilaštvo), which has its head office in Belgrade (Article 2 of LoPAO). The Public Attorney’s Office performs its function according to laws and other regulations which are in compliance with the Constitution and the law (Article 6 of LoPAO).

Distinction should be made between the Public Attorney's Office of the Republic of Serbia and the Public Defender (which is, in some countries, also referred to as public attorney or public attorney's office), because these are two different institutions. Public Attorney's Office of the Republic of Serbia performs functions witch in English and other languages to refer to as the State Attorney or Attorney General.

Competences

The competence of The Public Attorney’s Office is determined by Articles 7–10, 12 and 13 of LoPAO, according to which The Public Attorney’s Office:

The competence of The Public Attorney’s Office is also determined by a range of other laws and other legal documents. A part of that competence represents specially emphasized role of The Public Attorney’s Office as a legal representative of the Republic of Serbia or a legal advisor of the state organs in specific legal procedures, that is to say, specific legal situations. The other part of that special competence refers to situations in which The Public Attorney’s Office acts not as a legal representative of the Republic of Serbia, but as an independent party in a procedure. Some of these special competences are determined by the following regulations:

The Public Attorney’s Office also actively participates in most complex procedures in front of the arbitration councils of the International Chamber of Commerce, in the cases that the Republic of Serbia is the party.

In the cases the Public Attorney’s Office acts as a legal representative, courts and other bodies are obliged to deliver all documents directly to the competent Public Attorney’s Office. The deliveries which are in contradiction with this Article produce no legal effect (Articles 11. and 17. of LoPAO). If a delivery is not carried out directly to the Public Attorney’s Office, that means that the Public Attorney’s Office is prevented to act as equal party in the procedure, which represents the essential violation of civil procedure provisions (Article 374. paragraph 2 . item 7. of the Law on Civil Procedure). If a decision is achieved in a contradiction with the provisions concerning delivery, it can be challenged by an appeal for above mentioned reasons.

The Public Attorney’s Office has a right to claim court costs which are calculated by the same Tariff used by the Bar Association. However, the awarded costs are transferred not to the Public Attorney’s Office, but to the State budget (Article 15. of the LoPAO).

Organization

The function of the Public Attorney’s Office executes the Public Attorney, who is appointed by the Government for the period of 4 (four) years and can be reappointed. The Public Attorney has deputies, which are appointed by the Government. They execute their duty as a permanent assignment. The function of the Public Attorney or its deputy can perform a person that is a citizen of the Republic of Serbia fulfills general terms for establishing work relations in the state organs, graduated from the Faculty of Law and have 8 (eight) years of working experience in the field.

The Public Attorney is responsible for his/her work and the work of the Public Attorney’s Office to the Government, while the deputies are responsible to the Public Attorney and the Government.

The tasks in the jurisdiction of the Public Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Serbia are carried out in the headquarters and in eleven sections outside the headquarters as follows:

The Secretariat exists as a separate internal unit at the Public Attorney` s Office. Within the Secretariat, duties of interest for the entire Public Attorney's Office are being performed (normative, administrative, financial), and the coordination between the headquarters and the departments is being realized. The integral part of the Sekretariat is the Registry.

Regarding organization and competence of the The Public Attorney’s Office, the Law on the Public Attorney’s Office determines that the above-mentioned are regulated in accordance with the regulations of the Law on Ministries. Rights of the employees of the The Public Attorney’s Office that derive from work, and their obligations are regulated by regulations concerning working relations in the state organs.

Public Attorney

The current Public Attorney of the Republic of Serbia, Snježana Prodanović, was appointed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia on October 14, 2013.

History

The institution of a public attorney's office (Attorney General - State Attorney) has a long tradition in Serbia. Since the year of 1842, in, then existing, Principality of Serbia, the State Financial Manager (Serbian: Правитељствени фишкал) was established as a separate organ of the state, with the competence to perform the duty of a state attorney. This separate organ of the state was abolished only after a year, and the function of a state attorney's office was sent back within the competence of the Ministry of finance. However, within that Ministry, the function of the state attorney's office was always performed by particular employees - State Attorney (Serbian: Правитељствени правобранитељ / Државни правобранитељ), of which fact we can find a trace in the Manual for a State Attorney from the year of 1848. In this form, the State Attorney's Office existed in Serbia until the year of 1934, when a Law on the State Attorney's Office came to power. By this Law, for the first time, the position and organization of the State Attorney's Office as a separate organ of the state within the Ministry of finance, was established in whole details. After World War II, the name was changed to the State Attorney's Office in the Public Attorney's Office, without essential change of competencies of this organ.

External links

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