Regional Cooperation between Law Faculties to Improve Protection against Discrimination – Course Development

The aim of the project is to develop a model course on legal protection against discrimination in South-East Europe, which will be tested during a Winter School and further developed so that it can be integrated into the curriculum of law faculties in the Western Balkans either as a regular or elective course within the respective master programs.

The project involves law schools from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia, which are members of the South East European Law School Network (SEELS). Students from law schools in Podgorica and Priština/Pristinë will get the opportunity to participate in the Winter School.

The five-day Winter School “Legal Protection against Discrimination in South-East Europe” takes place in Belgrade January 22 to 26, 2018. The Winter School targets 3rd, 4th and 5th year law students from the project countries and promotes knowledge and skills, which are key in the system of preventing and protecting against discrimination, and allows for comparing the different systems of the Balkans at a regional level. The program is based on the idea that discrimination is a system that creates and reproduces stories of norm and normality and uses real or perceived differences to label human beings. Discrimination creates hierarchies and results in unjust distributions of power and privileges. As discrimination hampers prosperity and curbs the development of individuals and societies, legislation protecting against and preventing discrimination has been established.

The Winter School provides its participants with an overview about the concepts, forms, areas and grounds of discrimination defined at international and European level and from a comparative perspective of South-Eastern European countries. The participants gain insights into protection mechanisms against discrimination, procedural aspects of discrimination cases and possible remedies for persons affected by discrimination. Practitioners share their experience in promoting the protection against and the prevention of discrimination with the participants. Participants get the opportunity to actively involve yourself in discussions and workshops aiming at the practical application of theoretical knowledge gained during the lectures. The courses are taught by renowned lecturers of the SEELS Network. Since the lecturers come from different law faculties from the SEE region, the participants have the opportunity to experience different teaching methods, and obtain deeper insight into the regional contexts.

The Winter School is evaluated with a focus on developing and establishing either a regular or elective course on legal protection against discrimination in South-East Europe within the respective master programs of the law schools in the project countries.