The Law on Conversion of Housing Loans Indexed to Swiss Francs as an example of emergency legislation

The Law on Conversion of Housing Loans Indexed to Swiss Francs was enacted in a shortened procedure in April 2019, with the aim of providing special ex post facto legal protection to the consumers engaged in long-term housing loans with a currency clause in CHF. This paper firstly examines the relatively new practice of the Serbian legislature to act in the interventionist manner, that is, to change or adopt the laws for the purposes of addressing the individual contentious social issues that political decision makers perceive as acute social or political problems. The newly adopted Law on Conversion falls under such category of "interventionist" or "emergency" legislation. The paper then discusses certain provisions of the new law that do not fit well with the well-established rules on contract formation. Finally, the paper presents the current banking practice of concluding conversion agreements in line with the said piece of "emergency" legislation.