Founding  and Founders

Institute of Comparative Law was established in 1955 by the Federal Executive Council's ordinance. It started working on 1 superscript of January 1956. The status and organisation of the Institute of Comparative Law significantly changed in 1961/62. Since then, the Institute has the status of an independent scientific institution. Further alterations in the status and organisation of the Institute occurred after the passing of 1963 Constitution and 1964 Basic Act on Institutions. Act on the Institute of Comparative Law was passed in 1974 and it was then the Institute acquired legal status of an institution. After the passing of the Act on Scientific and Research Activity, the Institute again acquired legal status of an independent scientific institute the founder of which is the Federal Government and this status it retained until present day.
First director and founder of the Institute of Comparative Law was professor Borislav Blagojevic.
Professor Borislav T. Blagojevic was born in 1911 in Valjevo. He graduated at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade in 1933, and already in 1934 he acquired his PhD also at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, where he started his career as a university professor. He was a docent and non-tenure professor at the Faculty of Law in Subotica. After the Second World War, professor Blagojevic continued his university career at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, firstly as a non-tenure, and afterwards as a tenure professor. In the period between 1956 and 1963 he was the rector of Belgrade University.
Professor Blagojevic also developed his scientific and pedagogical work abroad, where he published numerous monographs, gave numerous lectures, among others at the International Faculty of Comparative Law, where he was a professor. He was an editor-in-chief of the International Encyclopaedia of Comparative Law - State and Economy - and president of World Association for Comparative Law. Professor Blagojevic was actively engaged in the development of legal system on international scale, through participation in the work of numerous international gatherings, congresses, symposiums, conferences etc, especially as a regular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in The Hague and as a member of the Council of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law in Rome. He was a honorary doctor at the University of Poznanj, and honorary doctor of the University in Clairmont-Ferran.
Blagojevic, LLM was also an associate of the Yugoslav Academy of Science and Art and member of the Scientific Association of Serbia.
A particularly important part of his scientific work was aimed at the development of Yugoslav legal system and social relations, which he accomplished through his engagement as a head or member of a number of institutions and associations.
He founded the Institute of Comparative Law and was its director for many years. The organisation and the activity of the Institute as he established them, remained substantially untouched until present day.
Professor Blagojevic was one of the most published authors in the history of Yugoslav civil-law literature. He wrote and published more than two hundred scientific papers, many of them being textbooks and large monographs such as: Enforcement Procedure System, Roman Law (special part), Civil Law Contracts, International Private Law, Inheritance Law, Principles of Private Procedural Law, Legal Status and Contracts of State-Owned Commercial Enterprises, Science on Citizenship, Adhesion Contracts, Contracts on Scientific and Research Work, etc.
With his entire work, professor Blagojevic has significantly and evidently contributed to the rising of the reputation of our legal science, both in our country and abroad, and become renown in Yugoslav and international scientific public.
He passed away proudly, just as he lived, in 1985.

Beside professor Blagojevic, a very important role in the work of the Institute of Comparative Law was played by professor doctor Vladimir Jovanovic, who was the director of Institute from 1979 to 1993.
After professor Borislav Blagojevic and professor Vladimir Jovanovic, the directors of the Institute of Comparative Law were professor Milorad Josipovic, professor Oliver Antic and Ivanka Spasic, LLD (as acting director). Presently, the director of the Institute is professor Vesna Rakic-Vodinelic.