Tamás Korhecz resides in Subotica (Vojvodina-Serbia), his hometown. He studied Law at Novi Sad University, graduating in 1992, and continued his studies in 1994 at the Central European University, receiving his LL.M in 1996 and an S.J.D. in Comparative Constitutional Law in 2001. While Korhecz felt that CEU’s workload was quite demanding, the academic environment provided comparative perspectives and a culture of active student discussion, which gave him the confidence to pursue a career as an innovative jurist and legislator. Korhecz’s research interests at CEU focused on the protection of national minorities, a theme characterizing his varied career ever since.
Mr. Korhecz was elected to the Executive Council of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in late 2000, serving in their department responsible for legislation, administration and minority rights. He was re-elected twice, serving until June 2010. In that period, he participated in drafting legislation for the protection of human and minority rights and for regulating Vojvodina’s elections and administration. His ideas were also incorporated into important national legislation such as the Yugoslav Law on the Protection of the Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities (2002), the Serbian Law on the Determination of certain Competencies of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (2002), the Vojvodina Decree on the Provincial Ombudsman (2002), the Vojvodina Decree on the Detailed Regulation of the Official Language Use of National Minorities (2003), the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia (2006), the Serbian Law on the Determination of the Competencies of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (2009), the Statute of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (2009 and 2013), and the Serbian Law on the National Councils of National Minorities (2009). Between July 2010 and October 2014, he served as President for the first democratically elected Hungarian National Council in Serbia, and since December 2016 as a justice on Serbia’s Constitutional Court.
Since 2002, Korhecz has taught constitutional and administrative law. Currently a full-time professor at Novi Sad, he was previously a visiting lecturer at CEU, Belgrade University Law School, Szeged University Law School, and Szechenyi University Law School. He has conducted research on minority rights, official language legislation, constitutional adjudication, administrative organization, and state decentralization, authoring or co-authoring over one hundred books, book chapters and journal articles in Hungarian, Serbian and English. His advice for current and prospective students at CEU is simple; focus on acquiring relevant knowledge and skills, and job prospects will increase accordingly.