In the month of May each year the Business Lawyers Association of Serbia traditionally organizes the Congress of business lawyers of Serbia in the resort of Zlatibor (in past in Vrnjačka Banja). This Congress gathers a couple of hundreds of renowned lawyers coming both from Serbia and from abroad. The participants of the Congress are judges of the Constitutional, Supreme and commercial courts, members of the Academy, attorneys at law, business lawyers, public administration officers and scholars affiliated to universities and institutes. Their discussions on various topics belonging to the main subject groups are always aimed at finding sustainable solutions to practical business problems and at clarifying some of the burning issues in the field of domestic and international business legislation, with a special focus on the EU law.

• Main topic

• Subject groups

• Round tables

• Conclusions

• Cultural events program

The topics of the Congress of Business Lawyers of Serbia always revolve around the burning issues of business law.
So far 27 conferences have been held. The main topics were as follows:

I. Constitutional reorganization of Yugoslavia and economic, business and labour relations reforms (1992)
II. Basic standpoints and principles of the draft Law on enterprises (1993)
III. New business legislation and the strategy for economic recovery (1994)
IV. Mixed economy – legal and economic aspects (1995)
V. Economy in reforms (1996)
VI. Economy, legislation and privatization (1997)
VII. Economic reforms – legislation and practice (1998)
VIII. Shareholders and privatization (1999)
IX. Enterprises and securities (2000)
X. Harmonization of commercial legislation (with the former Yugoslav Republics, the countries of South-Eastern and Central Europe and the EU member States) (2001)
XI. New regulations and investors protection (2002)
XII. Freedom of will and business organizations (2003)
XIII. Economy and privatization (2004)
XIV. New legislation – new economy (2005)
XV. Economy and legal security (2006)
XVI. Law and investors protection (2007)
XVII. Corporate governance (2008)
XVIII. Business Law and European integrations (2009)
XIX. Economy and legal responsibility (2010)
XX. Economy and legality (2011)
XXI. Laws and Economy (2012)
XXII. State and Economy (2013)
XXIII. Law Reform in Economy (2014)
XXIV. Economy and the new Civil Code of Serbia (2015)
XXV. Law and Business (2016)
XXVI Economy and Case and Arbitration Case Law (2017)
XXVII Economy and Arbitration (2018)
XXVIII Economy and business entities (2019)

The participants of the conference prepare their papers with a reference to a specific subject group and thus they provide a profound and detailed analysis of the main topic of the Congress. As a general rule, the subject groups are:
1. Business organizations - enterprises
2. Privatization and insolvency
3. Commercial contracts and disputes – litigation and arbitration
4. Business law of the European Union and Competition law
5. Banks and insurance companies
6. Intellectual property rights
7. Financial market
8. Taxes
9. Labour relations

Every Congress of Business Lawyers of Serbia is accompanied by several round tables dedicated to the burning aspects of domestic legislation. These round tables generally discuss the questions related to the need of harmonizing domestic laws with the EU legislation. For example, during the Seventeenth Congress of Business Lawyers of Serbia in 2008, two round tables have been held. Their topics were: Financial markets and Market and Monopolies.

At the end of each Congress, after holding a discussion, the plenary session of the Business Lawyers Association of Serbia adopts conclusions on the basis of submitted papers. These conclusions represent professional arguments by which the Business Lawyers Association of Serbia continuously contributes to the reform of the domestic legislation and to better implementation of the laws and regulations in force.

All the conclusions adopted so far share the same aspiration for an economy characterized by stability, development and concurrence. In order to establish such a system it is necessary to provide political stability (which includes State framework, regular and not extraodinary elections as a rule, stable and responsible parliaments, stable and responsible governments acting transparently both in the eyes of the State and in the eyes of people, responsible political parties, professional and responsible State administration), as well as necessary legal pre-conditions (sufficient volume of legislation, objective quality of laws and a real responsibility of the judicial branch). To that effect business lawyers constantly plead for a more transparent process of adopting laws that would entail a more significant participation of professional and scientific institutions and independent experts, a more active role of chambers of commerce in the process of adopting business regulations and a progressive development of the concept of copyright regarding the projects for draft laws. This would lead to reinforcing responsibility, increasing professionalism and the quality of legal acts. The correct implementation of laws naturally demands the completion of the judicial reform. All the instances provided for within the reformed judicial network must be established, the excessive load of cases before the existing courts should be reduced, and the methods of alternative dispute settlement (arbitration, mediation, conciliation, etc.) should be further improved. Finally, a sustainable solution should be found to the problem of decent financing the judicial branch.

Apart from the working sessions, every congress of business lawyers is accompanied by a rich cultural program, organized field trips, gala cocktails for all participants, as well as other social events aimed at making new friendships, getting together with old friends and colleagues, exchanging experiences and forging future cooperation.