National Security System in the Light Of Constitutional and Democratic Consolidation in Serbia

The Faculty of Political Science and the Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCSP) invite you to the discussion “The National Security System in the Light of Constitutional and Democratic Consolidation in Serbia”, which will be held on Wednesday, March 28, 2018, at 4 pm at the Faculty of Political Science in the classroom no. 4.

The discussion will focus on the constitutional consolidation in Serbia, the necessity and possibilities of amending the 2006 Constitution of Serbia, the place of security in the political systems of post-authoritarian and post-conflict societies, the security system and the deficiencies of its constitutional organization in Serbia, their consequences and proposals for improvement.

Special attention will be paid to the normative framework of the National Security Council as a central element of the security system, as well as democratic civilian control over this system. The findings of the research on the Serbian constitutional tradition and the comparative constitutional arrangement of this matter will also be presented.

Speakers:

• Miroslav Hadzic, Belgrade Center for Security Policy
• Djordje Pavicevic, Faculty of Political Science
• Ivan Dimitrijevic, Faculty of Security
• Jelena Pejic, Belgrade Center for Security Policy

Moderator: Filip Ejdus, Faculty of Political Science

Last year, the Government of the Republic of Serbia launched a debate on the amendments to the Constitution in the field of justice, as this area was recognized as one of the key obstacles on Serbia's path to joining the European Union. Discussions are underway on constitutional amendments proposed by the Government regarding the organization of the justice system. However, the Mitrovdan constitution was adopted quickly and without adequate public debate after the collapse of the state union with Montenegro in 2006, and the expert public pointed to procedural and material failures of the constitutional text in many other areas outside the judiciary from the beginning. Starting a debate on constitutional changes more than ten years later offers the opportunity to comprehensively review and systematically analyze these failures.

The Belgrade Center for Security Policy, in this way, wants to contribute to a wider debate about what kind of constitution the citizens of Serbia need, with particular attention to the security system, which has been the subject of research, analysis, and recommendations of the BCSP for the past twenty years.