Miro Cerar

Early life

Cerar was born in Ljubljana, and is the son of Miroslav, an Olympic gymnastics champion who later became a lawyer, and Zdenka Cerar (1941–2013), the first female State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia (1999-2004), Minister of Justice (2004) and Vice-President of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia. In her youth she was twice Youth Champion in gymnastics in Yugoslavia and a member of the Yugoslav team. After she ended her active career, she became a coach and referee. In his Early years his family moves to Grosuplje. His father soon started working in his own law firm, that he took over from the father of later state prosecutor Barbara Brezigar, born Gregorin. In 1967 family got larger, as his sister Alenka was born. In his primary school he was a good student, particularly interested in mathematics and chess. As his father was one of the greatest sportsmen in Slovenian history, Miroslav Cerar jr. also tried himself in sports. He played football and basketball, but he also tried himself in skying. As a youngster he entered into a music school, where he learned to play an accordion for six years. His effort soon bore fruit as in 1976 he became the lead accordion in Courier mail, which was carried by the pioneers from school to school in the wake of Tito's relay.

He continued his schooling on Plečnik's gymnasium in Ljubljana city center. In this time he switches from playing accordion to playing guitar. In his highschool years he started reading books, among them also Nietzsche and Alan Ford. In 1980 he got a second sister, named Vesna. In 1981 Miro Cerar narrowly avoided certain death, as he and his family canceled a trip to Corsica, as Miro's younger sister Vesna got ill in the morning. Later that day the worst Slovenian airline accident occurred, as the plane to Corsica crashed on mountain of San Pietro. In Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 disaster 180 people died. Later in her life, Vesna married a man that lost his parents in that same accident. In the same year Cerar was drafted in military service in Podgorica (at time Titograd) in modern-day Montenegro. In accordance with family tradition Cerar decided to study Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana, where he also met his later first wife Maja.

The 1990's

In July 1990 Cerar was invited to Podvin castle, where he was a part of a group that was preparing a new Slovenian Constitution. Other authors are Franci Grad, Tine Hribar, Peter Jambrek, Tone Jerovšek, Matevž Krivic, Ivo Perenič and Lojze Ude. In the beginnings of the 1990s he became a legal adviser to the Slovenian Parliament. In the middle of the 1990s he divorced his wife Maja and later married his second wife Danica, with whom he has a son and a daughter. In 1999 Cerar successfully defended his doctoral thesis titled "The (I)rationality of the Modern Law".

From the 2000's to the entry into politics

In the early 2000s Miro Cerar became a professor for the subjects of Theory and Philosophy of Law, Comparative Law and Etics of legal professions at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana. In 2005 he also participated in a groupt that was preparing a law about the so-called Erased, a group of people in Slovenia that remained without a legal status after the declaration of the country's independence in 1991. In 2008 he travels to Golden State University in San Francisco and Berkeley School of Law, University of Californiaas a Fulbright scholar. In 2009 he divorced from his second wife. From December 2010 to June 2012 he was president of the Judicial Council of the Republic of Slovenia, and before that a year and a half his vice president. in the years 2000 to 2014 he was thirteen times chosen to a group of the ten most influential Slovenian jurists, and in years 2011 to 2014 he was four times chosen as the most respected Slovenian legal expert.

Entry into politics

Following the resignation of Alenka Bratušek’s government in May 2014, Cerar announced that he would enter national politics. On 2 June 2014, he formed a new political party called Stranka Mira Cerarja/Stranka modernega centra (Party of Miro Cerar/Party of Modern Center). In the July election, Cerar's party won a leading total 36 of 90 seats in the parliament, with Cerar being later appointed prime minister-designate.