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Teaching NGO Law in Central and South Eastern Europe
By Prof. Gjylieta Mushkolaj
University of Pristina, KOSOVA

 

Importance

Important new initiatives have been undertaken recently by the international community to promote regional cooperation and integration in Central and South Eastern Europe. The importance of education in fostering regional cooperation has been stressed. ICNL’s pivotal educational initiative to introduce the NGO Law in the Universities of the region in order to building cooperation among the Universities in this field is a pioneering project.

Introducing NGO Law in the Universities of the region is of crucial value for the development of the new separate legal discipline in our countries.  This new discipline has emerged with the growth of NGOs in the region and the struggle for creating a favorable legal environment for NGO sector. Urged by the new international initiatives to adopt modern laws in every field, the countries of the region are working hard to create a stable legal environment for the genuine democratic development. However, adopting favorable laws and regulations is not sufficient without working for the training future lawyers. Consequently, introduction of NGO Law in the University curricula is of great value.

The Universities of the region are able to play an important role for the improvement of the legal position of the NGO sector as a vital component for democratic development. Cooperative development of a course on NGO law by legal departments of the Universities of the region will enhance university education in this field of the law, and could provide guidance toward the desired cooperation.

 

Methods for the University cooperation in the NGO Law field

  • In consideration of the diversity and traditions of our countries, our goal is develop a new NGO Law course in our Universities that would study and promote the NGO law as a legal discipline. The NGO law that is being developed in our countries has an important thing in common:

all countries in the region recognize the right to association as a fundamental human as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. This is very important, since the freedom of association is the foundation for civil society and the main principle of the NGO Law as a legal discipline. Therefore, the “right to association” section of the curricula could be a starting point for the joint development of the NGO Law course. Each instructor could contribute by including in the teaching materials also a short chronicle of the recognition of the freedom of association in his country, and the documents by which this right is guaranteed in every country.

  • The second major undertaking by the University professors of the region could focus on sharing the information on several important practical issues on the legal position of NGOs in the countries of the region. This would be of be tremendous help for both the Universities that have introduced the clinical courses, and for those that have not. In this way, the Universities in the region could have easier access to practical information on the legal position of the NGOs in countries of the region, such as:

-          Types of legal entities that can be recognized as NGOs in a presented country;

-          Obtaining juridical status by the NGOs in a presented country (registration authority; registration requirements and registration procedures; legal requirements for governing documents); 

-          Legal requirements for the internal governance;

-          Liabilities of NGO directors, officers, and employees in a presented country;

-          Legal regulation of the conflict of interest in a presented country

-          Tax treatment of NGOs and legal conditions for gaining public benefit status in a presented country;

-          Legal regulation of private and personal benefit restrictions in a presented country;

-          Fiduciary responsibilities in a presented country;

-          Reporting requirements in a presented country;

-          Legal regulation of economic activities by NGOs in a presented country;

-          Legal regulation and forms of political activities by NGOs in a presented country;

-          Legal position of international/foreign organization in a presented country; and

-          Government – NGO relations in a presented country.  

  • Since there is not enough sharing of information among the countries on these important topics, it would be of great help to share not only the syllabus, but also the teaching materials on this University course, in order to be able to enrich them by taking a comparative approach with special focus on the region in developing the course materials.  

  • Case studies could be of great help too. By including them in the course materials, and sharing them among us, we can also enrich our course materials. Relying only on the case law of our individual countries is not enough for shaping good teaching materials. With few exceptions, countries of the region are too small. However, being small is not a disadvantage. It has been demonstrated that cooperation and integration are the best way to overcome this obstacle.

  • Discussion of methods that are being used and methods intended to be used for teaching this subject could also be of great contribution. The presentation by the professors that are already teaching this subject would be very useful.

A special presentation by ICNL senior staff on the NGO Law clinics and by the professors of the region that have started with the NGO Law clinics at their Universities by focusing on the difficulties of the first years of introducing the clinical teaching.