Abstract
Within the ongoing Sports System reform process, The Republic of Serbia has faced a new legal challenge that is both demanding and complex. This challenge can be viewed as a necessity to reorganize, modernize and strengthen the sports system and to adjust it to new legal and technical standards arising from modern sports practice, rules of international sports associations, the Council of Europe conventions and the relevant European Union regulations. Legal framework regulating sports system and sports activities in the Republic of Serbia is a very interesting topic for research, because of the variety of legal, organizational and financial problems that have to be solved in the forthcoming years, in order to organize and establish effective and efficient sports system which would support further development of sport in Serbia and which would recognize sports activities, not only like fun and joy, but also like a branch of the national economy. Law on Sport currently in force in Serbia is very obsolete, based on a concept of sport system established during the last decades of the 20th Century. Because of that, in recent years, the Government of the Republic of Serbia decided to draft, and later on to submit, a new Law on Sport to the Parliament of Serbia. The Proposal of a new Law on Sport has been submitted to Serbian Parliament on 8th of November 2007. The comparative analysis of the recently enacted Croatian Law on sport is very much needed in order to help Serbian lawyers and sportsmen to assess the value and quality of rules prescribed by Serbian Draft Law on Sport. Croatian Law on Sport, enacted in 2006 is a representative example of a successfully performed reform of the legal framework regulating sport and sports activities in one country. The passing of the new legislative framework, the first of all the passing of new Law on Sport, governing the sport system and the sports organizations of Croatia was a decisive step in the reform process, which places Croatia in the forefront position among the reformist countries of the West Balkans region. Croatian Law on Sport is fully harmonized with EU laws and regulations affecting sport, which is of vital importance for further development of sport in that country. Now, a more challenging and difficult task lies ahead the relevant Croatian state administration organizations and sports organizations. That task is a proper implementation of the new regulatory framework. For the Republic of Serbia, at the moment of choosing the model of sports system reform and the reform of legal framework regulating sports system and sports activities, the factor that, primarily, must be taken into account is the constitutional/legal concept of the state itself and experience of the other countries in the region, as well as the best legal practice of the Western European countries in that field. New Law on Sport and other sports regulations in Serbia need to be made in conformity with European standards to pave the way for the country's eventual integration into the European Union and the example of Croatia and Croatian Law on Sport could be a clue for success.