By Lori Atherton
U-M Law
Michigan Law graduate Goran Selanec has been elected a justice of the Constitutional Court of Croatia for an eight-year term ending in October 2025. Justice Selanec, who received his LLM in 2002 and his SJD in 2012 from Michigan Law, is the youngest person ever elected to the Court.
"This is a great honor for Goran. As he joins the ranks of our alumni who serve on high courts around the world, Goran also makes Michigan proud," said Daniel Halberstam, associate dean for faculty and research and the Eric Stein Collegiate Professor of Law at Michigan Law. "It is always gratifying to see our talented and dedicated graduates given the chance to make a difference in positions of such great responsibility. I have no doubt he will serve with distinction."
Halberstam, who took over as chair of Selanec's dissertation committee at Michigan from the late Professor A.W. Brian Simpson, said the high court appointment is especially rewarding. "I recall encouraging Goran to come to the Law School for his LLM after meeting him in Zagreb, where our graduate, Siniša Rodin, now a judge on the European Court of Justice, introduced me to one of his 'brightest students.' We've had a steady stream of outstanding students from Croatia ever since." J. Christopher McCrudden, a William W. Cook Global Law Professor, and Catharine A. MacKinnon, the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law, also served on Justice Selanec's dissertation committee.
Prior to his election to the Constitutional Court of Croatia, Justice Selanec was his country's deputy gender equality ombudsperson, having previously served as legal adviser in that office. A 2000 graduate of the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb, Justice Selanec became an expert on the European Convention on Human Rights and its influence on the Croatian legal system. He has taught in the Faculty of Law's Constitutional Law and European Public Law departments, and was a visiting lecturer at the European Legal Academy. He is married to Nika Bacic Selanec.
Published: Thu, Dec 07, 2017
