JMC EECL Programme and Environmental Law Clinic Presented by Radio Television of Serbia
The RTS interview presented an educational model that connects university teaching, students’ practical work and professional training for judges and prosecutors.
On 30 December 2023, Radio Television of Serbia published an interview by Slavica Gligorović with Prof. Dr Mirjana Drenovak-Ivanović entitled “The Legal Clinic Helps Strengthen the Environmental Policy Framework”. The interview followed the presentation of the OSCE Mission to Serbia’s Person of the Year Award for her outstanding contribution to establishing the Environmental Law Clinic and the master’s programme in Environmental Law at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law.
The feature presented the Environmental Law Clinic as an elective programme launched in 2015 with the support of the OSCE Mission to Serbia. According to the information published by RTS, by the end of 2023 the programme had enabled 600 law students to strengthen their theoretical and practical knowledge and complete placements in public institutions. The interview explained how clinical teaching enables students to understand the application of environmental law in concrete administrative, judicial and other proceedings.
A separate part of the interview addressed the prosecution of environmental offences. It noted the difference between the number of criminal reports and the number of cases resulting in final judgments, while also identifying an increasing willingness among prosecutors to undertake complex cases requiring specialised evidence-gathering, expert assessment and evaluation of harm affecting a wider population or territory. This underlined the need for specialised knowledge and continuing judicial training.
The interview also presented cooperation between the Faculty of Law, the Judicial Academy and the OSCE Mission to Serbia, through which a standardised environmental-law training programme was developed for judges, prosecutors and Judicial Academy trainees. This model connects university teaching with the needs of legal practice and represents an important dimension of JMC EECL: transferring knowledge of European environmental and climate change law to students, the judiciary and other professional groups.
The discussion further considered developments in the European criminal-law framework for environmental protection, the need for penalties proportionate to the seriousness and scale of harm and the liability of companies. In relation to ESG standards, the interview explained that effective protection requires the participation of decision-makers, the public and the business community, together with reliable and comparable information on corporate environmental and climate impacts. Standardised reporting was presented as a means of distinguishing genuine sustainability performance from marketing claims and greenwashing.
The RTS coverage contributed to the dissemination of JMC EECL results by presenting to the wider public an integrated educational model that brings together teaching at undergraduate, Master’s and doctoral levels, the Environmental Law Clinic, the E-L-C Hub and professional training for members of the judiciary. It also demonstrated that the project activities are grounded in long-term institutional cooperation aimed at developing practice-oriented education in environmental law.
RTS, 30 December 2023: https://www.rts.rs/magazin/nauka/5337767/profesorka-mirjana-drenovak-ivanovic-pravna-klinika-pomaze-da-se-ojacaju-okviri-ekoloske-politike-.html