In Memoriam: Pavle Nikolić

Pavle Nikolić 

23 April 1928 - 31 October 2020 

 It is with greatest sorrow we announce the demise of Pavle Nikolić on October 31, 2020. Pavle Nikolić was an expert in Constitutional Law, Emeritus Professor of the Belgrade Law Faculty, and member of Crown Council (Serbia).   

Pavle Nikolić was born on April 23, 1928 in Belgrade. He completed his elementary and secondary education in Belgrade, obtained his B.A. degree at the Law Faculty in 1951, where he also obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1961 on the topic “The Assembly System”. He was a participant of the Fifth Session d’Études Supérieures de Sciences Politiques of the Faculty of Law and Economics in Aix-en-Province (Institute of Legal Studies in Nice, France) in 1958, and received a French Government scholarship to study at the Law Faculty and Institute of Political Science in Paris from 1964 to 1965.  

In 1952, he was awarded a fellowship at the Law Faculty, University of Belgrade where he began his academic journey becoming Full Professor in 1977. He dedicated his academic career to constitutional law only to retire at the age of 65 in September 1993. 

Beyond his university career, he held numerous posts and was an influential figure both in academia and politics. He was the Chairman of the Yugoslav Association for Constitutional Law, member of the Chairmanship of the Yugoslav Association for Comparative Law, member of the Chairmanship of the Union of Lawyers Associations of Yugoslavia, and Editor-in-Chief of the review “Archive for Legal and Social Sciences.” He also served as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of Serbia (1980-1987). He engaged in active politics and was one of the founders of the Democratic Movement of Serbia and the member of the Council of this Movement, as well as a representative of DEPOS party coalition (as a non-party member) in the Federal Assembly (1992-1996). He was a member of the Crown Council since its foundation in February 1992. 

In honour of his scholarly excellence and contributions to wider society, he was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Rouen, France (1986). He was also elected Honorary Professor of the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Senora del Rosario University (Facultad de Jurisprudencia) in Bogota (Colombia) in 1984 and as the Honorary Member of La Asociacion Colombiana de Derecho Constitutional. He worked as a Visiting Professor at the Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, France in 1980 and in the Fribourg University, Switzerland in 1981. 

As a legal scholar, Pavle Nikolić pioneered on issues concerning constitutional law and political science. His work particularly focused on the questions relating to parliamentarism, the assembly system, organisation and functioning of parliament, separation of powers and the relationship between the legislation and the executive, federalism, autonomy, constitutional judiciary and constitutional review. He has over 200 publications in these areas of research. His work was published in foreign languages including in French, English, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Russian, German, Hungarian, Japanese, and Czech. He conducted multiple courses (three at the Ph.D. level) and gave lectures in 18 countries at 36 Faculties all over the world. 

Pavle Nikolić was a member in many international organisations such as the International Academy of Constitutional Law in Tunisia, the European Institute in Nice and the University College in Aoste, the Institute for Political Studies in Grenoble and Bordeaux, the European network for decentralisation and local autonomy in European countries. 

He was one of the founders and the first Secretary General of the International Association of Constitutional Law (1981-1993), and from 1993 until 2004, he was Vice-President and was later elected as Honorary President of the International Association of Constitutional Law at its VIth World Congress in Chile. In addition, he was one of the founders of the International Academy of Constitutional Law in Tunisia (1984-1996), and thereafter served as a member of the Scientific Council of the Academy. 

Pavle Nikolić greatly contributed to legal scholarship on constitutional law and left behind a lasting legacy in the field inspiring many constitutional law scholars.  

Suggested citation: Oliver Nikolić, ‘Obituary: Pavle Nikolić’ IACL-IADC Blog (16 February 2021) https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/iacl-news/2021/2/16/in-memoriam-pavle-nikoli.