30/06/2022
Visit of partners from Croatia
Representatives of the ENEMLOS partner institution from Croatia, the University of Zagreb, visited Montenegrin partner institutions on June 29, 2022. Project coordinator Prof. Dr. Biljana Đuričin welcomed Croatian colleagues prof. Dr. Alan Uzelac, assistant professor Dr. Marko Bratković and Dr. Juraj Brozović in the premises of the Faculty of Law of the University of Montenegro.
The Bar Chamber of Montenegro was represented by Dr. Nina Radulović. In addition to the Chamber and representatives of the Faculty of Law in Podgorica, the meeting was attended by representatives of the national Chamber of Notaries and the Supreme Court, as well as students attending the legal clinic in the first generation.
The representatives of the Faculty of Law shared their first experiences in working with the legal clinic and explained how the selection of student clinicians was made based on a public call from interested candidates in their final year or postgraduate studies. They also explained how in the one-day training, the experiences gained at the online ENEMLOS trainings were transferred to the students. The operation system of the legal clinic was also clarified, according to which all student clinicians will receive 10 ECTS credits for the courses included in the work of the clinic.
The present students had the opportunity to express their impressions as well. First of all, they showed great enthusiasm for clinical work that will help them acquire the necessary skills for the application of law, which is much more important to them than acquiring ECTS credits during studies itself. They also pointed out that at the clinic they study law in a much more interesting manner than theoretical, which they were able to conclude immediately after processing the first and, so far, the only real legal case related to the issue of acquiring citizenship.
The focus of the discussion was on the ways in which the clinic can acquire clientele. Colleagues from the University of Zagreb emphasized the importance of the media and the aggressive media campaign that helped them the most. The Faculty of Law of the University of Montenegro drew attention to established cooperation with the non-governmental sector for this purpose, including organizations from the field of "green legal aid". In addition, the "form" in which legal opinions from the clinic will be issued was also discussed, as it must meet professional standards, but also be comprehensible to the lay readers, who are usually clients.
Dr. Radulović reminded to the earlier initiative of the Bar Chamber of Montenegro to standardize the form of legal opinion, so that numerous attorneys and other legal practitioners could respond to the task of non-academic mentoring in a high-quality and uniform manner. To everyone's satisfaction, she shared the information that the Bar Chamber published Abstracts from three ENEMLOS online trainings.
At the end, guests from Croatia were shown the premises at the Faculty of Law adapted for the needs of the legal clinic, with which they were impressed. Their impression is that the newly established legal clinic has excellent conditions for work, as well as excellent support from non-academic partners, which was not the case with the beginnings of clinical work in Croatia that were quite arduous. For this reason, they expect rapid progress of the clinic at the Faculty of Law in Podgorica, which will contribute to the growth of the faculty's reputation in general.
