by John B. Tieder, Jr., Senior Partner
This is the second part of my article on my travels and teaching in Slovenia. In this part, I write of my teaching law in Slovenia and my observations of the Slovenian legal system.
The University of Maribor – Finally!
So, we finally get to our home base – Maribor. We arrive on a snowy day which later turned into a blizzard. The University had rented us an apartment. My contact was a cell phone number for the landlady. Although she did not speak a word of English and I spoke less than 10 of Slovene, we met in front of the University and followed her to our new home. It was in a large apartment complex in a new part of town – quite modern and attractive with one exception - it was on the fifth floor and no elevator! Not so bad on a day-to-day basis but hauling up our suitcases was a bit of a chore. The other issue was size. It was tiny – 250 square feet at most; no closets and a sofa bed. On the other hand, the TV had several English speaking channels. A few hundred meters from the apartment was a restaurant that adjoined an archeological excavation of an old Roman settlement. Quite a contrast to our late 20th century apartment complex.
The old part of Maribor, where the University is located, was everything you could ask from a European University town. Built along the river Drava it had narrow winding streets with coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, beautiful public squares and buildings that cover 6 or 7 centuries. The city is famous for its wine and boasts the world’s oldest producing vine (400+ years). The wine is stored in a large cellar (over 3 kilometers of tunnels) below the city square. According to the resident wine expert, it is excellent and very reasonable – less than $10.00/litre for most. Only drawback to the city, and like Ljubljana, there is no one on the streets after 9:00 P.M. – it is eerie!
The law faculty (not law school) is in a large building dating from 1861. Many other University buildings have a similar architecture. I fully expected to see professors in academic robes arguing fine points of theology and philosophy. It is completely restored on the outside and wholly modern on the inside. I will admit not having been in a U.S. law school in sometime, but the classrooms were as up-to-date as I could imagine. They all had stand alone PC’s; I could access the internet and display the information on a screen. Instead of text books, much of the material, including all of mine, was on the University intranet.
The regular members of the faculty were very welcoming and hospitable. We were entertained often and lavishly by the Dean and others. A typical evening was to go to a restaurant a few miles out in the country and work our way through several courses over several hours. One particularly memorable evening started with a walking tour of the city at 4:30 in the afternoon and ended at our hosts’ flat in a restored apartment building near the University for dessert and liqueurs at 3:00 A.M.
Almost every day our hosts offered us some form of evening entertainment. One day the choices were to see the play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” in Slovene or tour the wine cellars under the City plaza; we chose the wine cellar.
Teaching and Students
Unlike the other places where I have taught, I did not have a self-contained course, but lectured in two ongoing courses: “International Business Transactions” and Arbitration. I also gave a lecture to the entire freshman class on the structure of the United States legal system and perhaps, most frightening, a lecture to the Intellectual Property Class on the United States Patent System. Fortunately, I was able to steer the last lecture into a philosophical discussion of the rights of inventors, authors, artists, etc., to their work product versus the rights of society to such things as reasonably affordable new drugs.
Most of the students spoke excellent English. We were able to have excellent classroom discussions. I was very impressed by the depth of their understanding and their ability to debate in a foreign language. I learned that most of the students started speaking English at home even before they went to kindergarten and supplemented their skill with English language TV shows and videos.
They had all, of course, “googled” me and knew more details about what I had written and cases I had been involved with than I actually remembered.
After the last class, which was on enforcement of foreign arbitration awards, one of the brightest students asked if he could talk with me privately for a few minutes. The conversation went something like this: “Sir, I am very reluctant to have this conversation and I would not be having it if it was not the last day of class and I know that you will not affect my grade. (Uh-oh, what had I said?) But I really like you and appreciate your coming to Maribor and sharing your knowledge and experience (ok – a little better) but I really have to tell you something so you will not embarrass yourself and make yourself disliked and disrespected (did I insult the faculty, the Government, the legal system, the whole Slovene race – really worried about a major cultural faux pas), but you are wearing your tie too long; the end of your tie can only come to the top of your belt and yours goes below your belt. No man in Slovenia wears his tie like that! I thanked him; told him I wished he had mentioned it earlier and that Americans, regardless of their age and status (i.e., professor) appreciate honest criticism. Of course, I immediately re-tied my tie; got his approval and went off to meet my wife for coffee at a café with all the confidence that only, in the words of ZZ Top, “a sharp-dressed man,” can have.
On my last full day in Maribor, two students, the boyfriend of one of them, and a faculty member gave us a full walking tour of the city with occasional stops for coffee at one of the numerous cafes. An all around great group of students and faculty.
The Legal System
Slovenia is a constitutional democracy and as noted earlier, was one of the first countries from the former Eastern Bloc to join the EU. By its constitution and its EU membership, foreign treaties take precedence over national law. Thus, for example, Slovenia honors the “New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards”, is bound by the TRIP’s (Trade–Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Convention, and has signed most of the other treaties dealing with intellectual property protection. It is in the process of revising its Arbitration law which will be an almost complete adoption of the U.N. Model law.
It is a civil law country and like other civil law jurisdiction, the law of contract (obligations) is governed by the Civil Code. An English translation is not readily available; I do have a copy provided by the University, but my colleagues there tell me it is a poor translation. Nevertheless, it is apparently the only English one available. If anyone has a need for it, I would be pleased to provide it. It is derivative of the German Civil Code and very close to the Austrian Code since, as set forth above, Slovenia was once part of the Austrian- Hungarian Empire.
Slovenia has the usual laws against corruption and, of course, it has some corruption. Unlike my other experiences, however, whatever corruption exists does not seem to be regarded as hopeless or a particular hindrance to legitimate investment, whether foreign or domestic. My surmise is that, being such a small country with a correspondingly small group of key government officials and business leaders, younger Slovenians believe it is a system that they will be able to understand and accommodate. This is compared to bigger countries where the “average” businessperson feels that the corruption exists at a level that can never be penetrated or understood. I should add that the perception of corruption only applies to such things as the award of contracts, zoning and like matters. It does not include the Court system, which seems to be quite independent.
Business Opportunities in the Construction Industry
There is not a great deal of trade between Slovenia and the United States. In 2007, U.S. exports to Slovenia were USD 297,000,000; imports were USD 488,300,000. Slovenia’s primary trading partners are in the EU or their former “comrades” in Yugoslavia or elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc.
There is still infrastructure to be built, but for the time being, the major cross-country road system is complete. Some of our clients in the tunneling industry would have be intrigued by the number and length of the tunnels in the highway from Ljubljana to Maribor: at least seven and some over 4 km in a 100 km stretch of road. Even if the system is expanded, it seems likely that the tunnel work will be done by the highly regarded Austrian, German and Italian tunnel contractors.
The railroad system does need work, but I am not sure that there is much opportunity there.
The electrical grid needs to be expanded and there are some possibilities here. Foremost is the addition of a new nuclear unit at the existing site. Western technology will apparently be used and there should be an opportunity here. Also, Slovenia has a very well organized natural gas distribution system imported from North Africa to a large Liquefied Natural Gas storage facility on the coast. There is or will be a need for gas-powered combined cycle plants. There may also be some new hydroelectric projects, but on a smaller scale and probably not worth the time investment of a U.S. civil contractor.
Conclusion
So, why did I title this summary, “Seeing Results?” Because one of my observations from other countries, and two of the major themes of my primary course on “International Business Transactions” and the innumerable after-class coffee and beer discussions with students and faculty seem to be true.
The observation is that reasonable access to secure property ownership, especially home ownership, is a key to personal and economic security and commitment to a political system. The themes are 1) that economic relationships (i.e., contracts) that are enforced and not just enforceable by the legal system, and 2) a level of corruption that does not cause complete despair, will encourage both foreign and more importantly, domestic investment in legitimate businesses. The Socialist/Communist system disappeared almost a generation ago. The students in Slovenia, like their contemporaries in Russia and Bulgaria, hear about it in the same way that my generation heard about “The Great Depression,” from their parents and grandparents – interesting but ancient history. Time to deal with the present and the future.
Slovenia had, of course, several advantages at the start. Small, ethnically, linguistically, and religiously homogenous, always reasonably prosperous, but it can be done. I am looking forward to my next assignment, which preliminarily will be Latvia.
The information or opinion provided in this article is the author's own and not necessarily that of Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, LLP. The author is solely responsible for the information and opinion that he or she has provided. The information contained herein does not replace seeking specific legal counsel to directly address individual client needs.
Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald is one of the largest construction law firms in the world, with a practice that encompasses all aspects of construction contracting, claims and disputes resolution, and transactional legal services. WTHF principally represents large general contractors, design firms, and sureties throughout the country and internationally.
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