The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina considered the Bill on the Supreme Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, proposed by MP Denis Zvizdić, with a request for urgent consideration.
The request for consideration of the proposed law under the urgent procedure did not receive the required entity majority of votes, so it was sent to the College for harmonization.
The proposed law regulates the organization, jurisdiction, publicity of work, financing and all other issues related to the establishment and functioning of the Supreme Court of BiH as the highest court of cassation in BiH, which ensures a consistent interpretation of law throughout the territory of BiH.
Among other things, it is defined that the decisions of the Supreme Court are final and binding.
Zvizdić, explaining the reasons for the urgent procedure, said that this is one of the priorities from the Opinion of the European Commission, which requires that Bosnia and Herzegovina “guarantees institutional legal security to all citizens on the territory of the entire country in such a way as to establish a judicial body that would be entrusted to ensure a consistent interpretation of law throughout BiH”.
“The judicial body that deals with this issue in almost all countries of the European Union and in the countries of the region is the Supreme Court. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only country in the region that does not have a Supreme Court at the state level. Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia are countries that have their own state Supreme Court, as a special judicial body that has cassation jurisdiction, that is, it deals with ensuring the legal security of all citizens on the territory of the entire country, through control of legality, standardization of judicial practice and deciding on regular and extraordinary legal remedies,” stated Zvizdić.
For this reason, he added, this Supreme Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be a kind of third-level judicial institution at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina “which we have not had until now, and which we obviously need”.
“I don’t see a single justified reason why Bosnia and Herzegovina should not get a state Supreme Court. This is not just my position, it is also the position of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2007, and the need for such a body was recognized by the State Strategy for the Development of the Justice Sector from 2008. This is a recommendation of the OSCE, but also of several scientific and professional conferences that dealt with these issues,” said Zvizdić.
In the end, he added, the European Commission also recognized this, which gave its position in the opinion of the European Commission for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He noted that this is a lex specialis law, given that the Supreme Court as a judicial institution is not currently recognized in the Draft Law on BiH Courts, which is still being worked on by the Ministry of Justice of BiH.
”I think it is a big and serious omission in the Draft Law on Courts and this bill aims, among other things, to correct that mistake. I also believe that there are no more or less important priorities from the Opinion of the European Commission. For me, all priorities are equally important and I don’t see a single reason why this issue of establishing the Supreme Court should not be discussed and put in the parliamentary procedure,” concluded Zvizdić.
The MPs had no need to hold a debate on the request that the proposed law be considered under an urgent procedure, and when voting on that request, an entity majority of votes was not required, so it was sent to the Collegium for harmonization, Fena reports.
