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• 2025 Editorial Board

Table of Contents

• 2025 Editorial Board

Sale of Goods Contracts in Saudi Arabia: Accession to the CISG, The Civil Transactions Act and conflict rules This paper examines the implications of Saudi Arabia’s accession to the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) in August 2023. Saudi Arabia joined only Parts I and II, postponing a decision on Part III pending further analysis of its compatibility with Sharia law. Two months earlier, Saudi Arabia enacted the Civil Transactions Act (CTA), its first civil law codification, largely replacing Sharia in contractual and non-contractual obligations. However, the CTA lacks conflict rules, leaving Saudi Arabia without legislation on conflict-of-law rules for sale contracts. This paper explores Saudi Arabia’s options for joining Part III of the CISG, the possibility of choosing foreign law or the entire CISG before Saudi courts or in arbitration, and compares the CISG with the CTA. It assesses the legal and practical challenges of harmonizing Saudi Arabia’s new legal framework with international sales law.

• Zlatan MEŠKIĆ [ Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia ]
• Mohammed AL-EISSA [ Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia ]

The Road Ahead: Challenges to the Effective Enforcement of the EU Representative Actions Directive The rise of digital technology has driven progress but also enabled large scale national and cross-border consumer law infringements. Unlawful digital practices threaten the internal market and the EU's goal of high consumer protection. Directive (EU) 2020/1828 on representative actions aims to enhance enforcement by balancing access to justice and litigation abuse. Its key contribution is to ensure that consumers can seek injunctions and redress in all Member States. However, while a step forward, the Directive does not fully resolve issues of standing and funding, which hinder access to justice and effective enforcement. Addressing these challenges depends on the creativity and flexibility of national legislators, lawyers, and courts to make representative actions more practical and effective. This article examines the impact of the Directive and argues that additional efforts are crucial to overcome its limitations and ensure meaningful consumer protection across the EU.

• Emilia Mišćenić [ University of Rijeka Faculty of Law, Croatia ]
• Marina Širola [ University of Rijeka Faculty of Law, Croatia ]

Civil Liability of Principal for the Acts of Agent – A Comparison Between France and Mauritius Mauritian civil law is strongly influenced by French civil law, for historical reasons. Civil liability, tort and contractual law, is regulated in an almost same manner in the two countries. However, as French civil law is only a persuasive authority in Mauritius, the position of the French Court of Cassation is not always followed by the Mauritian Supreme Court. Moreover, even when the legal solutions in the two countries are the same, differences can exist between the contractual and tort liabilities of principals for the acts of their agents. This paper aims at critically analyzing the similarities and differences in the tort and contractual liabilities of principals for the acts of their agents in France and Mauritius.

• Goran GEORGIJEVIĆ [ University of Mauritius Faculty of Law and Management, Mauritius ]

Data Retention and Criminal Procedure in Serbia The use of information technology enables state authorities to prosecute perpetrators and process personal data on an unprecedented scale and in an unimaginable way, in the course of taking measures and actions to prevent, detect and investigate criminal acts. One of the disputed processing is the nonselective mass monitoring of electronic communications in the form of retention of communication data, which, given the technological development and social importance of electronic communications, can on occasion reveal more about an individual than the content of the communication itself. This form of data processing represents interference with guaranteed human rights and freedoms, and need to be legally regulated in order to prevent their violation. The authors analyze the legal framework for retention of communication data and access to retained data for the purposes of criminal proceedings in Serbia, especially in light of the relevant practices of the CJEU and ECtHR.

• Milana Pisarić [ University of Novi Sad Faculty of Law, Serbia ]
• Ostoja Kalaba [ Advisor in the Office of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Serbia ]

Forming the Assembly as a Legislative Body in Ancient Greece In every democratic society, the role of the assembly is of utmost importance, as it is a political body whose main task is to represent the will of the people. While societies and states have evolved over the centuries and became more complex, both ancient and modern democracies have faced similar issues, the most important one being the creation of efficient democratic mechanisms that will truly allow the voice of the people to be heard and enacted. In this paper, the authors will focus on the evolution of the assembly in ancient Greece, in an attempt to draw conclusions that would also benefit the modern world.

• Vojislav Stanimirović [ University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, Serbia ]
• Una Divac [ University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, Serbia ]

Church Theft in Medieval Serbian Law Since ancient times, theft of sacred objects has been recognized as a qualified form of theft, as a typical property crime, but also as an act of sacrilege. In medieval Serbian law, the canonical and secular regulations are found in the two typikons and the Zakonopravilo (Nomocanon) of Saint Sava, as well as in the later compilations of Rhomaian (Byzantine) law of the Serbian redaction during the reign of emperor Dušan – Matthew Blastares’ (Abbreviated) Syntagma and the so-called Law of Emperor Justinian. Between these two great waves of reception of Rhomaian law, King Milutin’s Banjska and Gračanica charters summarily regulate church theft. The aim of this paper is to conceptually separate the church theft from other crimes against church property and to gain a better understanding of church theft in medieval Serbian law through analysis of the available sources.

• Đorđe Stepić [ University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, Serbia ]

Principle of adversariness in the proceedings before the constitutional court: review of judgment of European Court of Human Rights The purpose of this paper was to tackle the principle of adversariness in the proceedings before the Serbian Constitutional Court. Two applications have been filed to the European Court of Human Rights because of inability of the applicants to participate in the proceedings before the Constitutional Court in which final judgments in their favour were quashed. The applicants complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention that the Constitutional Court had failed to inform them of the constitutional appeals lodged against the judgments in their favour and that, as a result, they had not had an opportunity to participate effectively in the proceedings before the Constitutional Court. According to the case law of European Court of Human Rights the principle of adversariness in court proceedings also includes the proceedings before Constitutional Court. Since the applicants were not provided with an opportunity to participate effectively in the proceedings before the Constitutional Court, there has been a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention on this account. In future Serbian Constitutional Court would have to secure the application of adversariness principle in the proceedings instigated by constitutional appeals.

• Nikola Bodiroga [ University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, Serbia ]

Katarina Jovičić, Slobodan Vukadinović. 2023. Neizvršenje ugovora, odgovornost i naknada štete (Nonperformance of contracts, liability, and compensation for damages).

• Jovana Popović [ University Union Faculty of Law, Serbia ]