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Dr. Mark Lasser, Senior Justice Advisor, INL Justice Section, US Embassy Skopje, on the 21st of November gave a main guest lecture on the topic “The new Criminal Procedure Law and the adversarial procedure that it promotes” in front of South East European University students. The lecture was organized under the auspices of the President of the Board, Prof. Dr. Dennis Farrington. This is particularly timely, regarding the fact that the new procedure which promotes the Law on Criminal Procedure is an adversarial procedure, and also because these Criminal Law reforms are implemented according to the example of the US Criminal Procedure.
Dr. Lasser explained the main principles of the adversarial criminal procedure, and how it has developed. He also spoke about the specific roles of procedural parties and the judge. According to him, the main goal of this type of criminal procedure is to ensure that an innocent person will not be convicted. He quoted a famous saying which states that it is "better for ten guilty persons to be released than an innocent individual to be convicted as guilty". Dr. Lasser stressed that the essence of the adversarial procedure is the equality of the parties and the fierce struggle between them for argumentation.
Prof. Farrington made some comments about this Law (which has entered into force in December 2013), while the Pro-rector for Academic Issues and Professor of Penal Law, Prof. Dr. Ismail Zejneli stressed the fact that it represents a radical change in the criminal procedure in Macedonia, which until now was inquisitorial in character and now becomes a adversarial procedure characteristic of countries with an Anglo-Saxon system.
Students, judges, prosecutors, lawyers and other employees in the sphere of justice were present at the lecture.
This meeting was important for deepening the very important cooperation between the Faculty of Law and the Justice Section, US Embassy Skopje, who are willing to help the University for Practical Education in the law.