The President of the Bosnian entity Republika Srpska and a fugitive from the Bosnian judiciary, Milorad Dodik, stated today that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is “the only court in the world that has managed to make itself unconstitutional,” accusing this institution of continuously violating the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Like a goat guarding a cabbage, the Constitutional Court guards the Constitution. There is no provision of the Constitution that they have not violated. This is an undertaking for the ‘Believe it or not’ column,” Dodik stated on the X network.
He added that instead of nine judges, decisions are made by five, and now by seven judges, and that the Constitutional Court also decides on topics that “the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not address at all.”
“Such decisions will not be implemented,” Dodik added.
Dodik’s statement comes after the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina invalidated several laws and decisions adopted by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, including:
The Law on the Non-Application of Laws and the Prohibition of the Activities of Extra-Constitutional Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina;
The Law on Amending the Criminal Code of RS;
Decision on measures and tasks arising from these laws;
Certain conclusions adopted at the 17th special session of the RS National Assembly on February 26, 2025.
The Constitutional Court of BiH assessed that the aforementioned acts violate the fundamental provisions of the Constitution of BiH, especially Articles I/2 and III/3.b), because with them the Republika Srpska is trying to take over the competencies that belong to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The court emphasized that an entity cannot arbitrarily “return” competencies that have already been established as state, nor abolish the application of laws regulating the work of state institutions such as the Court of BiH, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, SIPA and the HJPC.
It was also assessed that the provision introducing a new offense in the RS Criminal Code – disrespect for decisions of entity institutions – is not in accordance with the principle of legal certainty and the rule of law because it is formulated too broadly and legally problematically. In this way, according to the Court, entity institutions are favored over state bodies, which is contrary to the constitutional order.
Due to all of the above, the Constitutional Court declared all disputed laws and decisions null and void from the very beginning (ab initio) and annulled them from the day of their publication or adoption.
