Every year in May, ELSA Belgrade (European Association of Law Students and Young Lawyers) organizes the project “Lawyers at work”, under the slogan “Choose your career”. The project includes a job fair and internship, followed by the educational part and the moot court competition at the national level.

The fair was attended by 40 exhibitors, prestigious law firms, and the educational part included more quality discussions, workshops, lectures, and the moot court competition. The moot court competition was attended by students from state law schools in Novi Sad, Belgrade and Niš and students from our Faculty of Law for Commerce and Judiciary, the educational unit in Belgrade. The area of law which was tested in the moot court competition was criminal law. Semi-final pairings were chosen by lot. The Law Faculty from Belgrade competed against the Law Faculty from Niš, and the other semi-final pair consisted of students from the state Law Faculty from Novi Sad and students of the Faculty of Law in Novi Sad. Our faculty team consisted of Ana Pavlović, student of the 4th year, Milica Jovičić, also a student of fourth year, Stevan Šapić, a third year student and Simona Arsenijević, a student of the first year. The competition principle is such that the students get a case 2 days prior to simulations, during which time they are supposed to prepare the indictment or defense, depending on the side they get. During the preparation stage, teaching assistants are allowed to help students, but at the competition students are on their own and they get the chance to demonstrate the knowledge they have gained at university. In the semifinals, after a very tough competition, the winners were students of our Faculty and students of the state Law Faculty from Belgrade. The finals were held in the packed courtroom of the Law Faculty, University of Belgrade. Our students had the role of the defense. The Judicial Council consisted of renowned lawyers: Božo Prelević, Goran Petronijević and Veljko Delibašić. The competition was interesting and the students did their best trying to question witnesses, defend clients etc. ... The end result was 95:90 for our students, which was a great victory! We are very proud of Ana, Milica, Simona and Stevan because once again they proved that they know how to apply the theory of law in practice, and that they can compete with students from state law schools. What is more, our students managed to beat competition despite the home-field advantage.

Obviously, our students have once again justified the Faculty slogan: Rightfully, the best!