SERBIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Aleksandar Ristić and Stefan Šilobad, Law Office Miroslav Stojanović
1. Identifying Assets in the Jurisdiction 1.1 Options to Identify Another Party’s Asset Position General Overview of Enforcement Under Serbian Law Serbia boasts a rather comprehensive legal frame - work when it comes to enforcement matters. The rel - evant provisions that regulate enforcement matters (eg, proceedings for enforcement of judgments and other enforceable documents, procedure for securing claims, etc) are primarily contained in the Serbian Law on Enforcement and Security (LES, Zakon o izvršenju i obezbeđenju ). In addition, relevant provisions are also contained in the Serbian Law on Civil Procedure (LCP, Zakon o parničnom postupku ), which regulates the general rules of court proceedings in civil matters and is thus applied accordingly in enforcement proceedings, as well as the Serbian Law on Resolving Conflicts of Laws with Regulations of Other Countries (LRCL, Zakon o rešavanju sukoba zakona sa propisima drugih zemalja ), which, inter alia, regulates the recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions in Serbia. Additionally, Serbia is a party to several multilateral treaties relevant for the matter of recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions, such as the following. • The Hague Convention on Civil Procedure (1954). • The Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (1965). • The Hague Convention on Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters (1970). • The Hague Convention on International Access to Justice (1980). • Hague Conventions related to the matter of family law – ie, Child Abduction (1980), Parental Respon - sibility and Measures for the Protection of Children (1996) and Child Support and Other Forms of Fam - ily Maintenance (2007). • International transportation treaties, including: (a) the Convention on the Contract for the Inter - national Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR) (1956);
(b) the Convention concerning International Car - riage by Rail (COTIF) (1980); (c) the International Convention concerning the Carriage of Passengers and Luggage by Rail (CIV); and (d) the International Convention concerning the Carriage of Goods by Rail (CIM). Serbia is also a party to several bilateral treaties with neighbouring and other countries on legal assistance in civil and commercial matters, including in certain cases on matters of mutual recognition and enforce - ment of court decisions (eg, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, France, Belarus, etc). According to the Constitution of the Republic of Ser - bia ( Ustav Republike Srbije ), these international trea - ties represent an integral part of the Serbian legal framework (ie, they are directly applicable) and take precedence over domestic laws, to the extent that they regulate the same subject matter and provided they do not contravene the Constitution itself. Serbia is not a member of the EU, which is why EU regulations are not directly applicable. Nevertheless, bearing in mind its candidate status, Serbia is expect - ed to progressively align its legal framework with that of the EU. Identifying the Assets of Another Party Publicly available information There are various public registers in Serbia that may be used to identify the assets of another party. While most of these registers may be accessed by anyone, certain information contained therein (usually sensitive in nature) is often reserved only for specific authori - ties, such as courts, public notaries, public bailiffs and qualified attorneys-at-law. The most relevant public registers that may be utilised for asset tracing are as follows. The Land Register – ie, the Real Property Cadaster (Katastar nepokretnosti) This is a public register that contains information on immovable assets for the entire territory of Serbia. Maintained by the Serbian Republic Geodetic Authori - ty ( Republički geodetski zavod ), it contains information
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