Iustinianus Primus Law Review

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR THE NATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON HATE SPEECH

Mihajlova Stratilati Elena — 2024-09-17

The purpose of this paper is to present the existing international standards concerning national
legislation regulating hate speech, focusing particularly on the instruments of the Council of
Europe. Namely, Council of Europe’s Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)16 on combating hate
speech and the “General Policy Recommendation No. 15 on Combating Hate Speech” by the
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) elaborate in detail on the conditions
necessary to fulfill the provisions of hate speech in the areas of criminal, civil, and administrative
law, in accordance with international human rights standards. Due to their particular importance
for the national contexts, a summary of these instruments will be provided.

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON FEDERALISM: ANALYZING THEORIES AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK IN COMPARATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

Jelena Trajkovska Hristovska — 2024-09-17

Federalism, characterized by its multifaceted, elastic, and complex nature, often presents significant
analytical challenges. This paper aims to thoroughly analyze and elaborate on the theories of federalism,
the elements of federations, and the status and organization of federal units. Despite the inherent ambiguity
and lack of a universal definition, understanding federalism requires an in-depth examination of these
components. By exploring classical and contemporary theories, this study highlights the dynamic nature of
federalism and its role in shaping political structures. Additionally, the paper examines the features of
federations within historical and modern political systems, providing insights into the conceptual
framework and practical implications of federalism in comparative constitutional law. Through this
comprehensive analysis, the paper seeks to offer a clearer understanding of the complex and evolving nature
of federalism.

LEGAL MINDS AND FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE: SURVEY ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL LITERACY AMONG MACEDONIAN LAW STUDENTS

Katerina Shapkova Kocevska — 2024-09-17

Financial literacy is an important competency that empowers individuals to manage their resources and
make prudent financial choices. In our work, we focus on examining financial literacy among law students
in the Republic of North Macedonia. We conducted a survey with 129 law students from the University
Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, the most prominent and oldest university in the country. The students
demonstrated high knowledge of banking and credit and low knowledge in more complex financial areas,
such as the share market, compound interest rate, and time value of money. Moreover, we used ANOVA
and logistic regression to examine how different factors impact financial literacy. The analysis of the
variance showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the students from various ethnic
backgrounds and students originating from different regions. The logistic regression was employed to
analyze the impact of socio-demographic, educational, and personal characteristics of the students on their
financial knowledge. The results suggested that only region is a statistically significant socio-demographic
predictor of financial knowledge. Personal characteristics, including financial influence and financial
attitudes, have a favorable and statistically significant impact on the financial literacy of students, while the
impact of financial behavior has proved to be positive but insignificant. The results from the study can
further be used by the relevant financial regulators and entities in the country to advance the learning
environment about finance competencies. We also recommend the innovation and modernization of the
curriculums of law schools by integrating courses, training, and workshops that will strengthen students'
financial knowledge.

CAPACITAS IURIDICA ET CAPACITAS AGENDI OF WOMEN IN ROMAN LAW

Esin Kranli Bajram — 2024-09-17

Law has an important function in realizing women's rights and eliminating inequality betweеn men and
women. Making women more visible in society and recognizing and protecting their rights must be
guaranteed by the rules of law. The situation of women in law is related to all branches of law, not a
single branch. The first examples of women's rights struggles in history started and continued with
radical legal system changes. Law emerged to regulate all kinds of interactions between people in order
to ensure social order. Among all known ancient laws, it is accepted that Roman law is based on private
law. However, with the development and change of the Roman society, the increase in its needs and
experiences, and the development of the understanding of the social state, the rules that would cover
personal rights and freedoms in Roman law naturally remained quite limited compared to today's legal
rules. In this study, in order to understand the legal status of women in Roman Law, we will take a look
at the legal regulations regarding rights and capacity to act, try to clarify the concepts of rights and
capacity to act, and mention whether there are legal restrictions on these two types of capacity and
whether these restrictions change the legal capacity of women.

POVERTY IN MODERN SOCIETY - A CHALLENGE FOR MODERN SLAVERY AND A PROFITABLE "INDUSTRY" OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN THE BALKANS

Emilija Aleksovska — 2024-09-17

Human trafficking is a widespread and complex issue, especially in the Balkans, necessitating further
research and analysis to understand its causes and implications. This paper focuses on the punitive and
criminological aspects of human trafficking in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
and the Republic of North Macedonia. The analysis reveals that human trafficking is a pervasive
problem in these countries, posing significant challenges for suppression. Factors such as the migrant
crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and poverty have exacerbated the difficulty of preventing human
trafficking. The entire Balkan region is facing challenges in combating human trafficking, as
underscored in recent reports by the United States State Department.

BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES AS A MEANS FOR ADVANCEMENT OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

Igor Mojanoski — 2024-09-17

The aim of the analysis of BITs as a method for advancement of foreign direct investment is to cover
several important topics. Those are: defining the term and the concept, determining its historic
development, explaining its basic characteristics, analyzing their features and the reasons for
concluding them. BITs serve a purpose of advancing the economic linkages of the signatory parties,
with an ultimate objective of development or economic advancement. From the eighteenth century
onward the forerunners of the modern BITs were the historic so-called Friendship, Commerce and
Navigation (FCN) agreements that were concluded by the major colonial powers as well as the USA.
The key difference between the FCN treaties and modern BITs is that the FCN instruments were
designed at a time when international commerce largely consisted of trading in goods by merchants.
Irrespective of the number of BITs concluded, their basic characteristics are more or less the same -
they are designed to cover the following five substantive areas: (i) definition of investment and
investor; (ii) admission of foreign investors; (iii) fair and equitable treatment of investors; (iv)
compensation in the event of expropriation; and (v) methods of settling disputes. Formally, BITs
regulate FDI-related issues such as admission, treatment, expropriation, and the settlement of disputes
at the bilateral level. Several important features are relevant for BITs: are concluded between capitalexporting
states and capital importing states, are differentiated phases of pro-investor attitude and
phases of state-centred thinking, cover mechanism to expand international standards and to codify lex
specialis, arises the question whether exhaustion of local remedies is required. One important reason
to conclude BITs being analyzed is certainly the fact that they have instilled a sense of security in
foreign investors. Finally, the reasons for concluding BITs are being presented.

THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION OF THE WESTERN BALKANS AND THE RULE OF LAW (CURRENT SITUATION AND CHALLENGES)

Aleksandar Lj. Spasov — 2024-09-17

The further enlargement of the European Union is in a critical phase due to the changed political
circumstances both internally in the EU member states, but also in the geopolitical context. The
experiences from the past cycles of enlargement, both positive and negative, motivated some
of the member states and the European institutions to revise the process of the European
integration of the candidate countries, primarily the accession negotiations as a central part of
the process, by setting the Rule of Law as a fundamental and most important criterion for the
accession. The Rule of Law is set as a crosscutting issue in the new revised Methodology for
the accession negotiations, adopted in 2020. It is part of the first cluster “Fundamentals” with
which the accession negotiations start and end. The paper analyzes the current situation and
challenges in the area of the Rule of Law in North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania,
all of them candidate countries from the region of the Western Balkans, following the 2024
Rule-of-Law Report prepared by the European Commission that included beside the member
states, also the mentioned candidate countries.

THE ‘CIVIL DEATH’ OF PERSONS DEPRIVED OF LEGAL CAPACITY IN THE REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Elena Ignovska — 2024-09-17

The author tackles the topic on legal capacity in the intersection between civil law and
human rights that is very important, yet neglected in the Macedonian legal theory and
jurisprudence. Namely, Republic of North Macedonia has ratified the Convention on Rights of
Persons with Disabilities and has an obligation to align its legal system (primarily its Family Law
and Law on Non-contentious Procedure, but also other laws) with its spirit. It seems as if the
concept of legal capacity does not include variations of the mental capacity in the Court’s decision
when deciding to limit/deprive a person of his/her legal capacity. Instead, it is binary in terms that
the legal capacity can either be limited/deprived or not, without further specification of the scope
of rights and obligations encompassed therein. As a result, persons deprived of legal capacity (and
sometimes persons with limited legal capacity) are limited to enjoying and acting upon most of
their fundamental rights. The author concludes that persons deprived of legal capacity in the
Macedonian legal system are in a state of ‘civil death’ because they are restricted from enjoying
and acting upon many fundamental human rights. These include equality rights (not to be
discriminated against), private and family life rights (a right to make decisions about their own
body, medical treatments, reproductive choices, conclusion of marriage, recognition of parenthood
etc.), procedural rights (a right to access to court and administrative institutions, a right to express
legally valid opinions in such proceedings), political rights (a right to vote) etc. This should be
changed as a matter of priority in the future.