Rašović : "In fifty years, the University has become a great pride of the society and the state of Montenegro"
The University of Montenegro, as the oldest and only state university in Montenegro, offers education in fields ranging from social sciences and humanities to technological, natural, and medical sciences. Among its 19 faculties and 3 institutes, the Faculty of Law, along with the Faculty of Economics and the then Faculty of Technical Sciences, laid the foundations for the establishment of the University.
Founded on May 25, 1972, in Podgorica, the Faculty of Law was established as a teaching and research institution where education and scientific research are organized and developed in the field of legal and related social sciences.
Over more than half a century of its existence, the Faculty of Law has evolved into a modern and contemporary educational and research unit. During this time, it has uncompromisingly promoted justice and produced many professionals in the field of legal sciences, a significant number of whom have decided to dedicate their professional lives to the Faculty and continue passing valuable knowledge onto new generations of lawyers.
Academician Zoran Rašović has established a special connection with the Faculty of Law, having graduated from it in Titograd with an impressive average grade of 9.73. At the Faculty of Law of the University of Montenegro in Podgorica, he was chosen as a teaching assistant in 1981 for Civil Law. He was appointed assistant in 1987, associate professor in 1992, full professor in 1997, and has been a regular professor for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral studies at the Faculty of Law in Podgorica since 2002. He teaches three mandatory courses (Civil Law, Property Law and Ownership Law ) and one optional course (Securities Law).
Rašović served as the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Podgorica for two terms (from 2003 to 2005 and from 2005 to 2008), was a member and president of the Governing Board of the University of Montenegro (2008–2012), and chaired the National Committee of the International Academy of Comparative Law (Academie internationale de droit comparé).
He has been a member of the Senate of the University of Montenegro, a member of the Legal Council of the Federal Government of the FR of Yugoslavia, and a member of the Commission for Harmonizing Montenegros Legislation with the legal system of the European Union. He is a member of the Commission for drafting the Civil Code of Montenegro and a regular member of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Rašović is the author of over 30 books and dozens of monographic studies and articles published in reputable journals. He has authored four university textbooks: "Civil Law," "Property Law," "Securities Law," and "Land Registry Law."
With such a rich and significant experience, Rašović, approaching the 50th anniversary of the University of Montenegro, reflected on his 47-year-long connection with the university. He highlighted the importance of the Faculty of Law for Montenegrin society and pointed out the significance of the facultys connection with the social life in Montenegro.
What role has the University of Montenegro played in your life and development? How much has it inspired you and directed you towards further goals?
Prof. Dr. Rašović: Our University and I have been inseparably and continuously connected for 47 years. It all began in 1977 when I enrolled in the Faculty of Law. As a proud product of it, I have permanently merged with my University in both deed and life. I have not established any other employment relationship except with my University. I am especially connected to it by heart and by my students, intimately, directly, warmly, and deeply. Thanks to it, I have attained scientific and academic values.
The University of Montenegro is for me the main educational, scientific, and cultural center where I was nourished and from which spiritual sustenance emerged. This institution is my great privilege that has overly sweetened my life, professorial, and scientific career. Therefore, my joy truly burns with its flame. It is permeated with genuine pride due to the unique anniversary of our institution where higher education activities are conducted, academic study programs are realized, and scientific research is developed. I am overwhelmed with a feeling of deep gratitude for having spent my entire working life at this brilliant and privileged place. In the ledger of my gratitude, this gift is the dearest and written in golden letters. Over these fifty years, the University has become a great pride of this society and the state of Montenegro.
What is the significance of the Faculty of Law for Montenegrin society? What contribution have the facultys professors, students, and other staff made to the development of the judiciary in our country and the effort to make Montenegro a de facto legal state?
Prof. Dr. Rašović: Its my pleasure to note that the Faculty of Law, the University of Montenegro, and the state of Montenegro are inseparable. This affinity has always been emphasized. The Faculty of Law has grown together with its University and the state of Montenegro in both action and life. Its undeniable that, from its inception, the Faculty of Law has bestowed many spiritual nourishments upon our state. Over these 50 years, the faculty has contributed numerous regulations, acts, actions, and works to our state. We cant help but notice that more and more events justify the conclusion that the services of our academic community must be utilized more frequently for significant strides towards aligning with the structured European states to avoid and solve legal problems. Drafting, interpreting, and applying laws require a special gift, skill, and knowledge. Not just anyone can perform this task authoritatively. Great and profound matters must be illuminated and explained through human reason. Legal problems are clarified by professional rules and universally accepted standards. This is the true privilege of our profession.
I believe the Faculty of Law will be an institution where the rule of law, implying equality before the law and generally preventing the arbitrary use of power, is so strongly, scientifically, and thoroughly promoted. It will be an institution that promotes an orderly legal system with appropriate characteristics of laws and reliable institutional guarantees to ensure the respect of human rights.
How would you encourage young people to enroll in the Faculty of Law? In what ways do you motivate students to be part of the positive change in the perception of the judiciary, the courts, and legal professions in Montenegro?
Prof. Dr. Rašović: Our students are a great privilege of our faculty. You can imagine our joy, excitement, and our proud and lofty soul because this academic life of ours cannot be separated from the tens of thousands of our students who have attended this great school of thought, the school of law, which promotes justice as a cornerstone virtue and as a foundation for the state, in these halls over 50 years with us. After all, for the Faculty of Law, the path to its success leads through its students. A large number of our students have reached the highest legal values. Many of them have managed to rise to the very peaks of legal science and profession and have become great pride of this society and among the best builders of the state of Montenegro.
My recommendation to prospective students of the Faculty of Law is to trust our institution as a privileged place for acquiring knowledge in the fields of legal, legal-economic, legal-sociological, legal-political, and legal-historical sciences, where academic study programs are implemented and scientific research is developed.
We are looking at a youth that gains new strength as it moves forward. We believe in the youth of this faculty, in our successors, just as our honorable predecessors believed in us. With the desire to preserve everything that has been nurtured, nourished, and defended over these 50 years. And to let their path continue. This requires a lot of effort, will, patience, sacrifice, insatiable curiosity, and our assistance. This is the natural desire of every older professor, not just natural but also desirable. Climbing the academic ladder is not easy. The constant longing and desire for improvement should continuously call and attract with tremendous force. Meanwhile, the interest of the Faculty and the University should be stronger than the interest of the individual.
How important is the collaboration between the judiciary, legislative authority, and the Faculty of Law? How significant is legal practice for students?
Prof. Dr. Rašović: A significant mark in the history of the Faculty of Law was made by its professors as legislators of the most important laws in Montenegro, particularly in the areas of civil, criminal, and commercial law. In these texts, the spirit and creations of the faculty, the personal erudition, and the personal elegance of its professors are felt.
The Faculty of Law is increasingly practicing and building connections with broader societal life. Our professors are turning more towards legal practice to harmoniously link it with theory, which has dominated for a large part of its existence. Legal practice is increasingly becoming a value of the activities of the Faculty of Law and its grand mission. In doing so, we are writing another significant moral document of our faculty and completing our grand legal and social narrative.
What would you say to the University for its 50th birthday? What advice for the future would you give?
Prof. Dr. Rašović: To my University, to which I have been intimately and proudly connected for 47 years of student and teaching life, I wish even greater academic prosperity. But let us not forget these 50 years of our glorious past, I would say a cult of the past that has been elevated to life and the adoration of tradition. Of course, always with a sense for the new era and new people around us and always ready to respond to the tasks set by the state of Montenegro and this society. I also wish for our students to continue to joyfully attend their professors lectures and to actively participate in them, making it a vivid picture of acquiring knowledge, personal erudition, and elegance. From its professors, I expect them to build upon this academic tower and fortress which, like a mountain peak, dominates the new great epoch of the Universitys life and spirit, which is a matter of higher culture and a higher idea about life. And let them not forget that the academic profession always seeks and cries out for the deepest and most refined spirits. Among our successors, I see people who will contribute to the University continuing to burgeon and bubble with new life, wafting new ideas. And may their stories always smell of the scent of Montenegro and its tradition, and of course, a European scent. And the brilliant scent of law and justice with the eternally relevant message: Live honestly, harm no one, give to each what is due.’