Specialization of judges for settlement of marriage disputes

The specialization of judges and/or specialized courts, as the reality of modern legal systems, take many forms: a specialized judge dealing with a limited legal area or cases relating to a particular factual situation in certain areas (such as, e.g. family law), specialized councils at existing courts (e.g. family council) or separate special courts (e.g. family courts). Modern family law defines a divorce judge as mediator, controller and protector of children’s interests, as well as of the balance of interests of spouses, whose main role is the consensual and complete regulation of the consequences of the marriage dissolution and, in other cases, the resolution of the divorce dispute by judgement on merits based on all the evidence presented. Such a complex court role requires not only an in-depth knowledge of legal matter but also a multidisciplinary approach to dispute resolution and imposes a specialization requirement in family matters, especially when it comes to high-conflict divorce cases. The subject of this paper is an analysis of the specialization of judges in the resolution of a high-conflict divorce dispute, taking into account all the advantages and disadvantages of specialization of judges, i.e. courts in that matter. Also, the aim of the paper is to consider the possibilities of better and more efficient work of the courts of the Republic of Serbia in this field, as well as the possibilities of specialization of judges in family law or the establishment of special family courts.