Serbia has three branches of government including the executive branch, the judicial branch and legislative branch.

Executive Branch

The leader of the country is President Aleksander Vuvic who was elected by the National Assembly (Serbia’s parliament, the legislative branch in Serbia) back in 2017.  The President is the “chief of state” under Serbia’s constitution.  The head of government is the Prime Minister, which is currently Ana Brnabic, who also was elected by the General Assembly in 2017.

The executive branch also includes a cabinet.  The cabinet is made up of _____________.  The cabinet is also elected by the General Assembly in the Serbian government.

Legislative Branch

There is one legislative body in Serbia called the National Assembly.  The National Assembly has 250 Members, each which is elected in a nationwide election.  Unlike the United States, there is no regional representation.  This means that the National Assembly is controlled by the political party or group of political parties that is (are) the most popular throughout the country.  Elections take place by party list.  This means that the areas that might have populations that favor a political party or ethnic group are not guaranteed representation on the General Assembly.  In Serbia, that means that the National Assembly is dominated primarily by ethnic Serbs.   Because the National Assembly elects the President and Prime Minister, there is not much possibility that the leaders of the country will ever be anything but members of the Serb ethnic group.

Judicial Branch

The highest court in Serbia’s judicial branch is the Supreme Court of Cassation.  The Supreme Court of Cassation has several panels of judges that are divided into panels.  There are a total of over 60 judges on the court that take cases on criminal cases, civil cases like disputes between parties and administrative cases.  There is a separate part of the highest courts that just hears issues about the Constitution of the country.  There are 15 judges on this Constitutional Court.

Supreme Court judges get elected by the National Assembly after they are proposed by the Judicial High Council.  The high council has 11 people on and 7 have to be judges.  The Constitutional Court is a little bit different.  Members of that court are appointed five each by the National Assembly, the President of the Country and the Supreme Court of Cassation.

This is a lot different than the United States where the President nominates judges to the Supreme Court that have to be approved by the legislature.

There are also courts below the two highest level of courts.  There are courts of appeals, a separate administrative court and commercial court, and courts that deal with lower-level crimes like misdemeanors in the United States.

Another special court got created after the Serbian war to deal with war crimes and crimes against humanity.