REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

CEFTA-2006 AND ANHANCING COMPETITIVENESS OF THE REGION - SOME SECTORAL ASPECTS
even when flexibility may be preferable. There are other views as well. They include the
minority view that the rule of law guarantees democracy.
In 1959, an international gathering of over 185 judges, lawyers, and law professors from
53 countries, meeting in New Delhi and speaking as the International Commission of
Jurists, made a declaration as to the fundamental principle of the rule of law. This was the
Declaration of Delhi. They declared that the rule of law implies certain rights and freedoms,
that it implies an independent judiciary, and that it implies social, economic and cultural
conditions conducive to human dignity. The Delhi Congress gave rise to three important
elements in the concept of the Rule of Law. First, that the individual is possessed of certain
rights and freedoms and that he/she is entitled to protection of these rights and freedoms
by the State. Second, that there is an absolute need for an independent judiciary and bar as
well as for effective system for the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms and third,
that the establishment of social, economic and cultural conditions would permit men to live
in dignity and to fulfill their legitimate aspirations. The Declaration of Delhi reaffirms the
principles expressed in the Act of Athens adopted by the International Congress of Jurists
in 1955, particularly the one that independent judiciary and legal profession are essential to
the maintenance of the Rule of Law and to the proper administration of justice. It recognizes
that the Rule of Law is a dynamic concept for the expansion and fulfillment of which jurists
are primarily responsible and which should be employed not only to safeguard and advance
the civil and political rights of the individual in a free society, but also to establish social,
economic, educational and cultural conditions under which his legitimate aspirations and
dignity may be realized.
In the twenty-first century, the rule of law has been considered as one of the key dimensions
that determines the quality and good governance of a country.
2. The independent judiciary
An important bond of political freedoms of citizens, legal state and rule of law is the
separation and independence of the judiciary from the legislative and executive. For the
rule of law and legal state technical division of powers between the legislature, executive
and judiciary is not sufficient as it exists in almost all modern states. What characterizes the
organization of the legal state and the rule of law is an independent judiciary. As a significant
institutional and procedural bond, the rule of law and the legal state, the independence of
the judiciary provides effective judicial and administrative protection and realization of
freedom and rights of citizens, because “there is no liberty if the judicial power is not
separate from the legislative and executive authorities” ( Monteskje, 1989, pp. 176).
Independence of the judiciary is a necessary prerequisite of a democratic political
environment. It is the institutional bond and the rule of law and fundamental human rights
and civil liberties. Because of its importance, the independence of the judiciary has reached
the level of achievements of civilization and social values. It contributes to protecting and
ensuring legal security and legal equality as important legal values. All these are reasons
why the European Union affirms the independence of the judiciary and the realization sets
in Serbia as an important condition for joining the European Union.
The United Nations has endorsed the essential importance of an independent judiciary by
its adoption of the Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary at its Seventh
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