There are 636 attorneys registered in the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates, out of whom 24 are Kosovo Serbs, however only a handful of them actually work.
The only registered Kosovo Serb attorney in last ten years is Dejan Vasic who says that this profession is on the verge of extinction among Serbs. “I was registered by the Chamber of Advocates in 2007. Ten years have passed since that time and not a single person had become the attorney in the meantime,” said Vasic.
Non-recognition of university diplomas is the main obstacle for graduated lawyers to become an attorney, judge or a prosecutor. Faculty of Law in North Mitrovica, which is the only institution in Kosovo where Serbs can study law, enrolls around 100 students each year. Diplomas from this Faculty are not recognized by Kosovo institutions, whereas the implementation of the Kosovo government’s regulation adopted in 2015, which, envisages the process of verification of diplomas from the University in North Mitrovica, is still pending.
Association of Serb Lawyers of Kosovo has made a remark that taking a bar exam in Serbian language is also faced with difficulties, what was denied by representatives of the Ministry of Justice of Kosovo, who claim that bar exam could be taken four times per year, in the Serbian language as well.
