Department of Legal and Economic Science

This Department is the smallest, but part of the Faculty from its very foundations. The Interwar history of this Department belongs to lawyer and economist Aleksander Bilimovič, born in Ukraine, with Ph.D. from Petersburg, who emigrated from the Soviet Union and became a full professor of economics at the University of Ljubljana from 1920 to 1945. His expertise was mathematic economics and he was among the leading economists of his period, having correspondence with J.M. Keynes.  Another important member of the Department was professor Ciril Žebot who studied in Milan, Paris and Prague. His areas were comparative economic systems, corporativism. His political activity included participation with the government in exile, based in London.  He was a strong advocate of independent Slovenian state. After the World War II he moved to USA where he became professor at Georgetown University in Washington.  At home, he is most known by his book »Slovenia: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow«, published and censored in 1966. 

The most distinguishing professor and member of the Department after the second world war was professor Aleksander Bajt, member of the Academy, and honorary doctor of the University of Ljubljana, who taught at the university from 1950 until retirement. His interest lied in broad areas of property theory, practic economic policy and applied econometrics.  Despite his critical stance toward the official socialist Yugoslav government, he was considered as the most important Yugoslav economist. In 1963 he founded Economic Institut of the Law Faculty, which became a leading institute for econometric macroeconomic research and analysis. In 1971, the Institute started with monthly publication Economic Currents, the oldest Slovenian economic review. Other members of the Department were: Vladimir Murko, Jože Rovan, Edvin Premrov and Pavle Sicherl.  With Bajt's support for the study abroad, the Department continued with international orientation.  All current members of the Department, Jože Mencinger, Franjo Štiblar, Katra Zajc and Marko Simoneti, received their PH.Ds at prestigious American universities.

The Department offers the following courses: Economics, Statistics, Finance, Economic Analysis of Law, Banking, Insurance and Financial markets and Economic Analysis of markets and corporations in EU.