Citizens (lay judges) in litigation procedure

At the end of 2009. Serbian Parliament passed the Amendments to the Litigation Procedure Act. The purpose of these Amendments was to harmonize 2004 Litigation Procedure Act with 2006 Serbian Constitution. Some of those changes were radical. Although the participation of lay judges is guaranteed by Constitution, those amendments radically reduced the number of cases that are to be trailed by panel. Whenever a party proposes trial by single judge if the other party doesn't object, the agreement on trial by judge sitting alone has been made. If there is a joinder of parties and one party makes such proposal, the others have to object, otherwise their silence will be considered as approval. The amendments to the Serbian Litigation Procedure Act showed clear tendency of lawmakers towards elimination of lay judges from litigation procedure.