On Thursday, the 2nd of December 2021, following a long illness, professor emeritus Dr Lovro Šturm, Slovenian lawyer and politician, died in the hospital. “With his knowledge and reputation, professor Šturm importantly contributed to the democratisation of Slovenia, at a crucial time before 1990 already. With his many contributions and proposals, he participated in the transformation of the constitutional system and the transition to constitutional democracy,” is what the text read at the award ceremony in 2020, when Šturm received the Silver Order of Merit of the Republic of Slovenia, for his outstanding contribution to the establishment of the rule of law, constitutionality, and constitutional science in Slovenia. May he rest in peace.
Professor Dr Lovro Šturm, Professor Emeritus of the University of Ljubljana, former Constitutional Court judge and Minister of Justice, was born in Ljubljana in 1938. After graduating from the grammar school of classical education, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana, where he graduated in 1961and then received his PhD in 1965. Dr Šturm’s scientific career started in 1961 at the Institute of Public Administration and Labour Relations at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, which he also headed in the years between 1972 and 1985. He was appointed to the position of full professor of administrative law and administrative sciences and legal informatics at the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana, in 1986. Between the years 1985 and 1990, he was head of the Department of Administrative Law and chairman and member of committees and commissions for study affairs at the Faculty of Law. He was also the president of the council and the scientific council of the Institute of Public Administration, a member of the editorial board of the journal of the Institute of Public Administration, and later the journal Public Administration.
Between the 7th of June and the 30th of November 2000, Šturm was the Minister of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia. Between the 3rd of December 2004 and the 21st of November 2008, he was the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia. From November 2011 to January 2016, he was the President of the Assembly for the Republic. He was also the professor of administrative law at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law and head of the Institute of Public Administration of the Faculty of Law; he was also awarded the title of Professor Emeritus of the University of Ljubljana in 2013. Šturm is also the author of 12 books and over 200 publications and discussions published in various periodicals.
In 2020, Šturm received the Silver Order of Merit of the Republic of Slovenia for his outstanding contribution to the rule of law, constitutionality, and constitutional science in Slovenia: “With his knowledge and reputation, professor Šturm importantly contributed to the democratisation of Slovenia, at a crucial time before 1990 already. With his many contributions and proposals, he participated in the transformation of the constitutional system and the transition to constitutional democracy. After Slovenia gained its independence, he was elected a judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia in 1991, where he ended his term in 1998. As President of the Constitutional Court from April 1997 to December 1998, he formed and enforced a new role for the court with the new Constitutional Court Act, adopted in 1994. One of the results of his efforts is also the public publication of all decisions and resolutions made by the court, which has significantly contributed to the consolidation of legal security, and his pioneering work in the interpretation of many provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia should also not be overlooked,” read the explanation of the state recognition awarded to Dr Lovro Šturm.
May he rest in peace.
Sara Bertoncelj
