Major areas of public and private law are divided into branches, among them civil, criminal, administrative, family and labour law.
Serbia is the fourth modern-day European country, after France, Austria and the Netherlands, to have a codified legal system.
[1] Written law is the basis of the legal order, and the most important source of law are: Constitution of Serbia, legal regulations (acts of parliament), international treaties (once they have been ratified by the parliament and promulgated), and such findings of the Constitutional Court, in which a law or its part has been nullified as unconstitutional.
[2] Sources of Serbian law are (in this hierarchical order): Acts of parliament and other legal regulations enter into force on the day they are promulgated (published) in the "Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia" (Serbian: Службени гласник Републике Србије, romanized: Službeni glasnik Republike Srbije), although they may take effect at a later date.
International treaties are similarly published in the "Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia".