Vladimir Leposavić

Vladimir Leposavić was born on 24 August 1984 in the town of Bar, Montenegro which was then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 2008, he graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. He is a three-time winner of the University of Belgrade award for professional work in the field of legal and economic sciences.[2]

He received the Robert Schuman Foundation Scholarship Award in 2008 and was also the winner of the prestigious Fulbright Program Scholarship Award for academic and professional results in 2014. As a Fulbright Visiting Researcher, he specialized in the field of international human rights at the American University Washington College of Law in Washington D.C., and received his doctorate in the field of international protection of minorities in 2016, at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade.[3]

In 2006, he served as legal assistant for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Belgrade office, providing assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons. He provided other legal assistance as a Trainee Solicitor for two Belgrade law firms from 2007 to 2009.

Leposavić was a Senior University Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the Mediterranean University in Podgorica from 2009 to 2016[4] and a law professor at the Union University in Belgrade from 2016 to 2018.

During his tenures, he taught Comparative Law and Political Systems, International Human Rights law, European Union law, Sociology of Law, Diplomatic and Consular Law, and Copyright Law. In 2019, he was awarded Teacher of the Year for his work as a trainer and licensed mediator for the National Center for Mediation in Dispute Resolution in Belgrade. He is the author of three monographs and several scientific studies and articles in the field of interstate law and international human rights. His book "Caught in the Exercise of Their Rights" was published by Matica Srpska - Association of Members in Montenegro, which quickly attracted the attention of both the scientific and professional communities, as well as the general public.[2][5] From 2018 to 2020, he served as the senior legal advisor of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, and has often emphasized the unconstitutionality of the controversial Law on Freedom of Religion that targets the Serbian Orthodox Church.[6] [7][8]

In the 2012 parliamentary elections, Leposavić supported and spoke at a rally of the Serb Unity, a coalition of Serb nationalist parties made up of the now-defunct Serb List of Dobrilo Dedeić, the People's Party of Predrag Popović, the Patriotic Serb Party of Aleksandar Stamatović and the Party of Serb Radicals. The leader of that coalition was the representative of the People's Party, Jovan Markuš, the former Mayor of Cetinje.[9][10]

In 2014, Leposavić supported the Socialist People's Party of Srđan Milić in the local elections and gave a speech at their campaign rally. In his speech he strongly criticized possible Montenegrin accession to NATO.[9][11]

Since 4 December 2020, he has been serving as the Minister of Justice and Human and Minority Rights in the Government of Montenegro and the cabinet of Zdravko Krivokapić.[1]

Leposavić is married to a Vietnamese-American Vy Nguyen who works in the United States Department of Defence.[12]