The Montenegrin Government has adopted the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Civil Procedure at the session held on the 28th of May 2026. The stated Draft represents the latest step in the direction of bringing in line the Montenegrin legislation with the legal system of the European Union.
With the stated proposal, the Regulation (EU) 2020/1784 on the service in the Member States of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters has been directly incorporated into Montenegrin law. The aforementioned amendment stipulates that the delivery of documents in the stated matters will be done in accordance with the EU standards, while Montenegrin courts will be required to provide assistance in the instances of serving judicial documents from other EU member states to a recipient in Montenegro with an unknown address. In addition, the party with a legal interest will be able to request the address of the recipient in Montenegro directly to the competent authority, or via an online platform.
On the other hand, delivery of court documents to other Member States will be carried out via a decentralized system like e-CODEX, or directly to a known e-mail address of the recipient, with his prior acceptance.
All service of documents is to be carried out in accordance with the rules of the GDPR.
Furthermore, minor changes were introduced regarding the proceedings before court, including:
- withdrawal of claims;
- preparatory hearings;
- main hearings;
- mediation proceedings, and;
- revision proceedings.
Lastly, the jurisdiction of the Montenegrin court has also been expanded with the new Draft to include acting in disputes between same-sex partners. This amendment aims to harmonize the Civil Procedure Act with the existing Law on Same-Sex Partnerships, thereby eliminating uncertainty regarding court jurisdiction in such disputes and enhancing legal certainty.
Prepared by,
Daniel Vujacic, LL.M. (UW)