There have been several attempts of the Government of the Republic of Serbia to legalize structures that have been constructed contrary to its building and land use laws. In spite of all expectations, the results achieved have been insignificant. In order to legalize the highest number of illegally constructed structures and to undertake preventive action against the emergence of new illegal construction, the new Law on the Legitimation of Buildings was adopted in November, 2015. However, the author argues that this act, despite its newly simplified and inexpensive procedure, will not enable the legalization of buildings within informal Roma settlements due to the substandard nature of these settlements (most of which are built on land in public ownership or on land that is of an unregulated or unclear legal status). Therefore, the author advocates a need for the enactment of special Law on the Legalization of Sustainable Informal Roma Settlements as a necessary prerequisite for the subsequent legitimation of individual structures within such settlements.

This paper deals with various issues in regard to nullity of the merger procedure in the EU law, comparative law and Serbian law. It examines possibilities for the nullity of merger procedure after registration, in regard to conditions, procedure and effects. Problems connected to ineffective and incomplete regulation of the nullity of the merger procedure in Serbian law were scrutinized in particular. Different solutions were put forward in regard to existing regime and appropriate regime de lege ferenda was suggested.

The author illustrates the normative framework of protection against religious discrimination in Italian legal system, scattered over several different pieces of legislation. The analysis is devoted to the substantive and procedural rules on the principle of equal treatment irrespective of religion. The analysis shows that the law guarantees every aspect of freedom of personal convictions in religious matter and protects not only people who belong to traditional organized religions, but all people who have held religious beliefs or practices. Italian law prohibits discrimination in regard to religion, not just in employment, but also in other areas. Consequently, the scope is wider than the EU Non-discrimination Directive 2000/78/EC, which only covers discrimination in employment, occupation and working conditions. The rules for the procedure before the court, designed to ensure the protection for persons who have been subject to discrimination are then examined. The author focuses in particular on the provisions regarding the legal standing, the burden of proof, and the remedies, which are crucially important for the effective implementation of the principle of equality.

Globalization, internationalization, interdependence and legislation in international relations and international law, which occurred after the end of the Cold war, brought changes into the existence and functioning of international intergovernmental organizations. Their special, autonomous, independent will is getting stronger and is becoming confirmation of their independent legal personality. The main result of the independent roll of international organizations are their decisions, which is why studying and following their internal practice is of crucial importance, although it neglected to a large degree. For that reason, this paper tends to point at several elements of that internal practice, throughout the conducts of members (primarily states) in decision-making and expending competences of the permanent organs, as well as at new phases and new participants in the decision-making process in international organizations. The list of these novelties is certainly not exhausted and new questions arise from the discussion about the responsibility of international organization for their conducts.

In this article author compares two separated branches of law (Admiralty and Bankruptcy) which are connected in case when maritime lien applies on ship whose owner is in bankruptcy. The problem which arises here is to which of two aforementioned branches of law should be given the preference in the application, because these two can't be applied simultaneously. This is because of shortage in value of ship in question which is not enough to settle both admiralty and bankruptcy creditors. Therefore, it is necessary to make the order of priority in which different types of creditors settle their (un)secured claims. Particular problem arises for the claims which are created some short time before and after commencement of the bankruptcy proceedings due to Bankruptcy Law deprives these creditors of secured status. From these reasons, author proposes resolution in preference of Admiralty Law in competition with Bankruptcy Law. The main argument for this reasoning is contained in the fact that maritime lienor doesn't know nor can know that shipowner gets into bankruptcy (or already is in bankruptcy). This conclusion is sup- ported by the fact that maritime lienor usually acquires maritime lien on the ship which is distanced from the owner for miles.

The paper considers the issue of the possibility to award the fundamental rights to sentient animals. Taking as a starting point contemporary animal protection laws, particularly the ones in which animals are treated as human's co-beings, the latest scientific investigations, which prove irrefutably a sizeable genetic similarity between humans and animals, but also negligible differences in intelligence and capability to communicate between themselves, as well as the change of course in individual contemporary codifications towards disallowing treating animals as things, the author advocates argumentatively for recognising the fundamental rights of animals and thereby their legal personhood. According to the author's understanding, sentient animals should be awarded the fundamental rights corresponding to their interests, needs and species, such as: the right to life; the right to freedom; the right to not have pain, suffering and stress inflicted on them; the right to be cared after by humans; the right to acquire ownership rights; and the right to legal protection.

The desire to attract foreign investment, combined with the drive to declare foreign and domestic investors 'equal' has resulted in a recent legislative change - 2002 Law on Foreign Investment has been replaced with the Law on Investment. The new law is, however, of limited impact, suffers from conceptual deficiencies and contains only a couple of improvements when compared with the prior legal regime. The legislatior was evidently reluctant to part for good with the concept of 'laws protecting foreign investment', or to give up on idea of a quick-fix for systemic problems plaguing the entire legal system. Instead, it tried to shield the investors from such problems only, often resorting to dubious solutions. The real improvement of the legal environment for investment requires careful improvement of the existing laws and their robust enforcement. In addition, Serbia could in the meantime expand and modernize its existing network of bilateral investment treaties.

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As a rule, in comparative tax law statutes do not have a retroactive effect. This principle may be either postulated in constitutions or derived by constitutional courts from the principle of legal certainty. The issue of retroactivity cannot be raised in the case of imposition of a property tax, since its taxable object per definitionem is property representing the result of the accumulation of unspent income realised in previous periods. Indeed, retroactivity is allowed in many legal systems subject to some strict conditions. The authors distinguish between retroactivity and retrospectivity, the latter being in principle permissible and denoting cases where a statute is applicable without grandfathering to the future consequences of a taxable event that occurred before its enacting. Analyzing the impact of Radbruch's values contained in the idea of law (legal certainty, purposiveness and equality) on the principles of intertemporal law, the authors conclude that the prohibition of retroactivity implies the primacy of the principle of legal certainty, while retrospectivity puts in the foreground the principles of purposiveness and equality. The European Court of Human Rights considers that retroactive application of a tax statute does not represent per se a violation of the right to peaceful enjoyment of property. However, the Court developed conditions that, being unfulfilled, qualify the application as disproportionate. Since Serbia and Montenegro ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, ECtHR's positions are relevant for Serbia's legislator.

The author examines different issues considering legal and social standing of mercenaries, mostly being focused upon the fourth court speech (On the Estate of Nicostratus) of the Athenian speech-writer Isaeus, teacher of Demosthenes. On the one hand, he reveals a number of neglected data about mercenaries in terms of their legal activities in and out of their native polis. On the other hand, based on those findings and on other sources, the author studies the issue of Athenian civic identity in the case of mercenaries who spent years or decades out of their city-state without participating in the political life of the polis. In that context he examines the question of whether a mercenary was regarded as 'politikos' or 'idiotes'. As civic identity was mostly based on the citizenship, the author claims that mercenaries enjoyed a kind of sub-identity or 'frozen civic identity'.