The final conference of the ” Law in Everyday Life ” project, organised by the Faculty of Law of the University of Rijeka, a partner, was held in Rijeka on September 27, 2024.
Prof. Sanja Barić, PhD, head of the Faculty of Law project team, opened the conference by greeting everyone in the hall and via video stream. In addition to participants from Rijeka and other cities in Croatia, representatives of Croatian state bodies and law enforcement agencies took part, along with participants from France, Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, and the delegation of the Supreme Court of Montenegro.
Welcome speeches
Ana Munivrana, the executive director of the Forum for Freedom in Education (FFE), the project lead organisation, first gave the welcome speech, emphasising the importance of this project in the FFE’s efforts to develop the civic competences of young people, especially in Croatia. In her remarks, she stated what was achieved during the project, which created a high-quality basis for further dealing with basic legal literacy and advocating that students become familiar with basic legal terms and concepts.
On behalf of the Faculty of Law of the University of Rijeka, the attendees were greeted by Associate Prof. Stjepan Gadžo, PhD, vice dean for international cooperation, who also highlighted the importance of trying to bring something as complex as law to the younger generations in a simple and interesting way, and in this way to make them aware of the extent to which law and legal norms affect our lives.
Participants were also greeted by Prof Marta Žuvić, PhD, vice-rector for studies, students and quality assurance of the University of Rijeka, Prof Bojan Hlača, PhD, vice-dean of the Polytechnic in Rijeka, and Izabela Linčić Mužić, head of the Administrative Department in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. Sandra Krpan, the deputy mayor of the City of Rijeka, was supposed to welcome participants, apologised for being unable to come, and sent greetings and welcomed everyone to Rijeka.
Keynote Presentations
In the central part of the conference, attendees could listen to three keynote presentations on legal language and teaching basic legal literacy in school.
Daniel Green, M.Sc. Phil., LLM, from the Wirtschaftsuniversität in Vienna, Austria, gave a lecture entitled “The Future of Teaching Law and Language in Europe and Beyond”. He emphasised the importance of language for law and how legal norms are translated into linguistic forms. This is one of the challenges in the European Union, where all languages are equal regarding the authentic text of a certain legal document. Also, prof. Green presented several perspectives and theories on the relationship between law, legal norms and language that can currently be identified in the literature.
Then Boris Jokić, PhD, director of the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb (IDIZ), talked about “Teaching Civil Literacy in Croatia”. The presentation began with an overview of research findings related to the current social climate in Croatia and the attitude of female and male students towards active participation in society. He also presented the extracurricular activity “School and Community”, in which IDIZ is one of the initiators, and examples of activities from two secondary schools through which students, among other things, became familiar with specific legal terms and concepts.
At the end of this part of the conference, Mario Bajkuša from the Forum for Freedom in Education, author and manager of the “Law in Everyday Life” project, spoke about how the partners of the project approached basic legal literacy and what were the basic assumptions of the project. In addition, he presented all the project results, which together form an educational model for teaching basic legal literacy that can be applied immediately and is available in English, Italian, French, Portuguese and Croatian. You can find all the results and resources of the project here.
This was followed by the opportunity to ask questions and briefly discuss what was presented.
Round Table
The conference resumed with a round table moderated by Prof Matija Miloš, PhD, of the Faculty of Law. Alongside Daniel Green and Boris Jokić, two more guests were invited: Helena de Karina, a professor at the First Rijeka Croatian Grammar School, and Prof. Zoran Grozdanov, PhD, a scientist and associate of several organisations that care for vulnerable social groups.
The round table started with a conversation about what it means to be and remain a student today and how teachers can support students in the learning process while at the same time being students themselves. The following discussion highlighted the importance of connecting what is being learned to the real world and life so that students can see the purpose of what they are learning during their education. In this context, the conversation about law, legal norms and legal issues is of great importance because it combines several important aspects of life with which students should be familiar. Professor de Karina particularly emphasised the importance of teachers knowing the law and legal norms relevant to their work because “teachers can only exercise their autonomy if they know the regulation of what they have to do well”.
In the continuation of the round table, several important topics were touched upon that pointed to the importance of teaching basic legal literacy within education, which opens up the possibility for future generations to acquire critical competencies for navigating life, critically reflecting on relationships in society and generally empowering them to protect their rights and the rights of others and advocate for democracy and the rule of law.
Demonstration Workshops
In the final part of the conference, two demonstration workshops were held. Mario Bajkuša led the workshop in Croatian, and the one in English was led by Soha Lemaitre El Jammal from Pistes-Solidaires, a partner organisation from France.
After the workshops, there was a conversation with the participants, who positively evaluated the project and its results and pointed out some foundations in the education system that could be further built on. However, the enthusiasm of the teachers and professors who have included these and similar topics in their teaching or organised other teaching activities was also emphasised.
You can learn more about the project and its results at our website.
Project’s Media Presence
In the days before the final conference, the Faculty of Law in Rijeka project team worked intensively on the project’s media presentation. Along with several articles on news portals, the most significant media presentation was a report for N1 television (a CNN affiliate network) in which Prof Sanja Barić, PhD, presented the project and its results in detail.