President Milanović at the 250th Anniversary of Zagreb’s Faculty of Law: Stay strict and ambitious
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović participated today at a formal ceremony marking the 250th anniversary of the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb. In his address, he highlighted the historical importance of the Faculty of Law for Croatian statehood, while also warning of the modern challenges facing the legal profession, primarily due to the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence.
Speaking at the event, President Milanović recalled key historical figures, singling out Ivan Mažuranić as the man to whom Croatia owes the transformation of the University of Zagreb into a modern institution, as well as Stjepan Radić and Vladimir Vidrić, who initiated the political organisation of the nation. “This institution was established in 1776 in Latin and German, and only at the end of the 19th century in Croatian. That was a pivotal moment,” President Milanović recalled, adding that foreign authorities from Vienna and Budapest did everything in their power to thwart Croatian institutions.
He stressed that Croatian lawyers should never feel an inferiority complex when facing international competition, as the Faculty of Law in Zagreb has always been “a strict, slightly pretentious, but genuinely good institution”. “Stay that way – strict, selective. An elite school has to be as such,” he urged. He added that, unlike certain others, the Faculty of Law had historically not been a hotbed of radical ideas and unrest, but rather a stable institution. “The University of Zagreb, including the Faculty of Law, contributed to Croatian statehood, but it was never a hotbed of radical and foolish ideas, rebellions, riots, physical clashes, or barricades,” the President stated.
President Milanović identified the overproduction of legal professionals, coupled with technological advancement, as the greatest challenge currently facing the legal profession. He drew a parallel with the late 1980s, when only 250 lawyers were registered with the Bar Association, compared with more than 2,000 today. He sees the greatest danger in the possibility that law firms, driven by a desire to cut costs, might begin replacing human labour with artificial intelligence on a massive scale.
“If you hear from lawyers that artificial intelligence is an excellent substitute for the human labour they currently pay for, they will almost certainly go down that path. This means that instead of five people, they will need only two, while young lawyers will be deprived of a formative period that lasts ten to fifteen years,” the President warned. He also questioned how the legal profession would function in the long term when today’s lawyers retire and are replaced by people who have not undergone the necessary professional “rigorous training.”
At the end of his address, President Milanović congratulated the Faculty of Law on its major anniversary and urged its professors and students to preserve its standing as an elite institution for ambitious individuals who earn their status and degrees through hard work and knowledge. “You are an elite school, a school for ambitious people. Remain that way, without any sense or complex of inferiority; there is absolutely no reason for one. These are things that must be earned, just like your degrees, which you have earned through hard work,” President Milanović concluded.
In addition to President Milanović, the speakers at the ceremony included Professor Romana Matanovac Vučković, Ph. D., Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb; Professor Stjepan Lakušić, Ph. D., Rector of the University of Zagreb; Professor Davor Derenčinović, Ph. D., Judge of the European Court of Human Rights; Tomislav Tomašević, Mayor of the City of Zagreb; Mirta Matić, President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia; Professor Frane Staničić, Ph. D., President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia; Damir Habijan, Minister of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation, representing the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia; and Ivan Malenica, Member of the Croatian Parliament, representing the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament.
President Milanović was accompanied by Jadranka Žarković, Adviser to the President of the Republic for Education.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Marko Beljan