Slobodan Zečević PhD

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Slobodan Zečević, PhD

Director, Full Professor, Principal Research Fellow

Education

  • PhD in Political Science, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade
  • PhD in Law, European University, Belgrade
  • MA in Law, European University, Belgrade
  • LLB, Faculty of Law, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France
  • Sorbonne Faculty of Law diploma recognized by the Faculty of Law in Belgrade.

Research Interests

  • European Union Law
  • Institutional System of the European Union
  • French Foreign and Interior Policy
  • International Relations

Biography

Since April 2014, Prof. Dr. Slobodan Zečević has been permanently employed at the Institute of European Studies in Belgrade, where he holds the title Principal Research Fellow. As of August 2024, he has been appointed Director of the Institute of European Studies.

He recently published his new book Constitutional Order of the European Union, an important and thoroughly researched study of contemporary developments within the European Union.

Dr. Slobodan Zečević is the author of several books and numerous scholarly articles in the fields of the institutional system, European Union Law, and EU Business Law, as well as academic analyses on Serbian–French relations, the French political system, and French cultural policy. His books have been used as reference literature in the teaching process at the University of Belgrade and at faculties across the Republic of Serbia, Montenegro, the Republic of Srpska, and North Macedonia.

For over fifteen years, he has been continuously involved in higher education teaching in Serbia. Dr. Zečević has delivered a number of lectures outside his home institution in the areas of European Union law, institutional systems, and international relations. These include lectures at the Faculty of Law in Niš on “Decision-Making Procedures in the European Union”; at the G17+ Institute on “The Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the Republic of Croatia and the European Community and its Member States”; at the European Movement in Belgrade on “The Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe”; and at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade on “The Historical Development of European Integration,” “The Evolution of the Institutional System of the European Union,” and “The French Presidential Elections.” Within the Institute of European Studies, in 2014 he organized the scientific conference Challenges of Serbia’s Accession Process to the European Union and edited a special issue of the journal Kultura polisa dedicated to this topic.

Between 2001 and 2023, Zečević published numerous articles in the daily newspapers Politika and Danas on the topic of European integration. On the same subject, he has given several interviews to Politika, Večernje novosti, Blic, the weekly NIN, the Tanjug news agency, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), Radio Television of Montenegro, Radio Television of Republika Srpska, and various commercial television stations in Serbia (B92, Studio B, Prva TV, N1, Nova S, Pink, Vesti, Kurir, K1, Tanjug TV). On behalf of the Institute of European Studies, he provided live commentary for RTS and B92 on the visit of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls to Serbia, whom he had studied with at the Sorbonne, as well as on the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. As an expert analyst, he has also commented on French presidential elections (2017, 2022) and on the visit of President Emmanuel Macron to Serbia in July 2019.

Through the cooperation between the Institute of European Studies in Belgrade and the European University, Prof. Zečević participated from 2011 in a research project funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia, titled Serbia in the Processes of European Integration – Global Context, Institutions, Identity (Project ID: 179011).

On September 21, 2010, Prof. Zečević earned his second doctoral degree at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade with a dissertation titled The Evolution of the Institutional System of the European Union, under the supervision of Dr. Slobodan Samardžić, then Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Full Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences.

In 2005, he was elected Full Professor at the Faculty of International Management, teaching courses in European Union Law, EU Business Law I, and EU Business Law II.

In 2000, Prof. Zečević became Dean of the Faculty of European Business within the European University. He played a key role in the development and organizational consolidation of the newly established faculty and was actively involved in fostering cooperation between the European University and the Franco-American Institute in Paris.

Earlier that same year, he transferred to the newly founded Faculty of European Business, where he was appointed Associate Professor for the subjects European Law and Business Law.

In 1998, Zečević defended his doctoral dissertation titled European Union Competition Law and was appointed Assistant Professor at the Faculty of International Management for the courses European Law and Business Law.

In 1997, he was elected Teaching Assistant for the course European Law at the Faculty of International Management in Belgrade.

He began working at the Faculty of International Management in 1995 as a Junior Teaching Assistant. In 1996, he defended his master’s thesis titled The Prohibition of Agreements and Abuse of Dominant Positions as an Instrument of the Free Market Competition Policy in the European Union. At his home faculty, he initiated the introduction of European Law and EU Business Law as regular subjects in the curriculum.

On July 13, 1990, the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, recognized (nostrified) his law degree from the Sorbonne.

In October 1985, Zečević enrolled at the Faculty of Law, Sorbonne, Paris, France (Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne), where he graduated in 1989, majoring in International Law with a specialization in European Community Law.

Membership in Professional Organizations

  • Association for Public International Law
  • Association for European Law
  • Association of French Students in Serbia – ADEF

Publications

Books

  • 2025: Constitutional Order of the European Union, Akademska knjiga, Institute of European Studies, Novi Sad. (In Serbian)
  • 2022: On Gaullisme and the Serbs, Akademska knjiga, Institute of European Studies, Novi Sad. (In Serbian)
  • 2018: Tell Me a Story about Serbia and the European Union, Akademska knjiga, Institute of European Studies, Novi Sad. (In Serbian)
  • 2015: The Institutional System and the Law of the European Union, Institute of European Studies, Belgrade. (In Serbian)
  • 2012: European Union Business Law II, European University, Belgrade. (In Serbian)
  • 2011: The European Union – Institutions and Law, European University, 2nd edition, Belgrade. (In Serbian)
  • 2008: European Union Business Law I, Center for the European Union, Belgrade. (In Serbian)
  • 2005: European Union Business Law, Center for the European Union, Belgrade. (In Serbian)
  • 2004: The European Union for All Europeans, Center for the European Union, Belgrade. (In Serbian)
  • 2001: The European Union – Institutions and Law, Faculty of International Management, Belgrade. (In Serbian)
  • 1998: European Union Competition Law, Faculty of International Management, Belgrade. (In Serbian)

Thematic Collections

  • 2022: The French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, in: International Organizations: Serbia and the Contemporary World, Volume I, Duško Dimitrijević, Toni Mileski (Eds.), Faculty of Philosophy, University of St. Cyril and Methodius – Skopje, pp. 521–531.
  • 2022: Systemic Limitations of the Democratic System in Serbia, in: Thirty Years Since the Renewal of Multi-Party Politics in Serbia: Experiences and Perspectives, Institute for Political Studies, Belgrade, pp. 46–59. (In Serbian)
  • 2021: The European Union and the Challenges of Enlargement to the Western Balkans, in: Development Directions of the European Union After the COVID-19 Pandemic, IMPP Proceedings, Belgrade, pp. 331–343. (In Serbian)
  • 2020: Unexpected Results of the 2019 European Parliamentary Elections, in: Strategic Streams 2019: European Elections and the Future of Europe, Institute of Social Sciences, pp. 10–26.
  • 2020: Media Regulatory Bodies and Parliamentary Democracy: Examples of France and Serbia, in: Media Policy and European Integration, Institute of European Studies and Hanns Seidel Foundation, Belgrade, pp. 182–194. (In Serbian)
  • 2019: French Cultural Exceptionalism, in: Proceedings of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, pp. 123–135. (In Serbian)
  • 2018: Reviewer of the conference proceedings – “Toward a European Society – Limitations and Perspectives,” Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade. (In Serbian)
  • 2017: Relations between China and the European Union and the New Silk Road, in: Initiatives of the ‘New Silk Road’ – Achievements and Challenges, Belgrade, IMPP, pp. 106–113.

Scientific Papers

  • 2022: Serbia as a Geostrategic Challenge for the European Union, European Legislation, No. 77–78, pp. 32–41.
  • 2022: Restoring European Security and Bringing Diplomacy Back to the Global Stage, European Legislation, No. 79, pp. 13–21.
  • 2021: L’influence du Gaullisme sur les Serbes, Lipar Journal, Kragujevac, pp. 103–110.
  • 2021: Gaullism, the French Fifth Republic, and Serbian Constitutional Solutions, Kultura polisa, Novi Sad, pp. 21–33.
  • 2020: Macron’s Model of Accession Negotiations for Joining the European Union, Kultura polisa, No. 42, pp. 351–359.
  • 2019: Withdrawal of States from Membership in the European Union, European Legislation, No. 67/19, pp. 9–19.
  • 2019: French Elections for the European Parliament, Kultura polisa, Special Edition, No. 3.
  • 2018: Attitudes Toward the Federal Idea of a Union of European States, European Legislation, No. 61–62/17, pp. 20–29.
  • 2018: Serbia’s International Position, Kultura polisa, No. 35, pp. 119–129.
  • 2018: The European Dimension of Serbian Foreign Policy, European Legislation, No. 63, Year XVII, UDC 327(497.11:4-672EU), Biblid 1451-3188, 17(2018), pp. 9–21.
  • 2018: Re-establishing the European Union, European Legislation, No. 64/18, pp. 9–18.
  • 2017: Ambiguities in the Institutional System of the European Union, European Legislation, No. 59/17, pp. 9–22.
  • 2017: Unfinished Economic Federalism as One of the Causes of the Crisis of the Constitutional Order of the European Union, Kultura polisa, Special Edition, pp. 123–133.
  • 2017: Atypical Presidential Elections in France in 2017, Kultura polisa, No. 34, pp. 109–119.
  • 2017: The Attitude of Serbs Toward the Federal Idea of a Union of European States, European Legislation, No. 61–62, pp. 20–30.