A DECISIVE HALF-STEP FORWARD – REVIEW OF THE LAW ON INVESTMENT

The desire to attract foreign investment, combined with the drive to declare foreign and domestic investors “equal” has resulted in a recent legislative change – 2002 Law on Foreign Investment has been replaced with the Law on Investment. The new law is, however, of limited impact, suffers from conceptual deficiencies and contains only a couple of improvements when compared with the prior legal regime. The legislatior was evidently reluctant to part for good with the concept of “laws protecting foreing investment”, or to give up on idea of a quick-fix for systemic problems plaguing the entire legal system. Instead, it tried to shield the investors from such problems only, often resorting to dubious solutions. The real improvement of the legal environment for investment requires careful improvement of the existing laws and their robust enforcement. In addition, Serbia could in the meantime expand and modernize its existing network of bilateral investment treaties.