President Milanović Attends Day of Faculty of Law and 246th Anniversary of its Foundation
On the occasion of the Day of the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb and the 246th anniversary of its foundation, a special session of the Faculty of Law was held during which the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović called on the preservation of the quality of the Faculty of Law to make it as much as possible an elite institution because, as he said “the teachers have the potential”.
“I wish this to be a centre of excellence because this is systematized knowledge that is 246 years old. The tradition is long, it commits and obliges. In this sense I wish you all the best and congratulate you on this anniversary, which isn’t a jubilee, but is significant. The year in which it happened, the years that followed and the context in which it happened”, President Milanović noted in his address.
The President recalled that at the time when he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb, three hundred students were enrolled there and another one hundred students at the two remaining law faculties in Croatia. He wondered whether there is a need for such a large number of jurists?” “Can Croatia sustain one thousand jurists and can the teaching quality that is expected from a top-rated Faculty of Law, and the Zagreb one is very good, can the criteria be met”, he asked.
Talking about his experience as a law student President Milanović said that he never had any inferior complexes wherever he went, and felt that the students from the Faculty of Law are equal to others. “If we are equal as I have seen we are, why then as a society and as an economy we’re not stronger and more powerful?”, President Milanović asked. He considers that Croatia’s membership in the European Union is a great thing, but it doesn’t mean that the effects of membership should be analyzed. “Ten years later we’re in that great community that, in my view, we should keep questioning on a permanent basis, sceptically, not cynically because the absolute of our organization is the Croatian state, and membership in the EU is an added value”, President Milanović noted.
Regarding the Faculty of Law he concluded: “246 years after its foundation there is no reason not to be satisfied. This is a quality educational institution, everything else is extra. Everything revolves around what will be the Croatian interest and how we can protect and improve it, and abide by certain rules”.
In addition to President Milanović and the opening remarks of the Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, also speaking at the special session were the Deputy Mayor of Zagreb Luka Korlaet, the Rector of the University of Zagreb Stjepan Lakušić, the President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia Radovan Dobronić, the Minister of Justice and Public Administration and delegate of the Prime Minister Ivan Malenica and the Member of the European Parliament and delegate of the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Tomislav Sokol. Furthermore, recognitions and the Dean’s award were bestowed upon the best students in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Alongside President Milanović was the Adviser to the President for Education and the Adviser to the President for Foreign and European Policy Neven Pelicarić.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia/Filip Glas