Amicus Curiae

The Faculty of Law, University of Maribor organizes the Amicus Curiae project in cooperation with the Administration Court in Ljubljana and Maribor and the District Court in Maribor.

The project aims to encourage students to actively participate in solving court cases. A court allows the students to study a certain case - however, they cannot take the case file out of the court house or spread any of the information they were revealed. After being given a chance to study the situation correctly, they need to advise the court on the use of the appropriate law, also looking at EU and international law, determine the proper jurisdiction and discover as much as possible about the related problem. When examining the case in details, they also try to find the solution to the problem.

Mentors guide the students, advise them in their study and finally correct their written submissions, yet they do not provide the students with the solutions to the problem. It is their goal to only steer the students in the right direction so they can individually find the correct solution. Exactly this individual work is paramount for the creation of independent lawyers that know how to use the law and how to apply it to real life situations.

It can most definitely be said that this is a win-win situation for all of the involved – students get to see how the courts work and independently analyze a real-life situation, judges get some additional information about the case and the mentors get a beautiful overlook of the current court practice. The project does not affect the work of the courts.

The project is carried out through both semesters and students prepare more than 60 advising opinions each year.

The project is led by FullProfessor Rajko Knez Ph.D., other mentors are Full Professor Martina Repas Ph.D. and Associate Professors Janja Hojnik Ph.D. and Suzana Kraljić Ph.D..