From the first day of the new year, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina remains without judges appointed from the RS. Zlatko Knežević is leaving his post due to early retirement. Thus, the number of missing judges will increase to three, which does not block the work of this institution, but it does complicate it. A story old for years, the judiciary at the center of political interests, the guild is paid by the citizens.
“The people say: We will see each other in court and the court will decide it. And there is no court. Can you imagine what kind of failure this is in the organization of the state?”, commented lawyer Vlado Adamović.
Failure, so from nine to seven. From the first of January to six. The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the highest judicial instance, faces an additional problem. After the missing two, the place of Zlatko Knežević also remains vacant. It’s not paralysis, but it’s a complication. Also confirmed by this institution:
“Due to the impossibility of the work of the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for objective reasons (incomplete composition of the Constitutional Court), the Constitutional Court is forced to resolve cases exclusively in plenary sessions. However, only a limited number of cases can be resolved in this way.”
And almost 8,000 pending cases. This does not worry the political representatives of both entities who have to decide on the filling of the missing judges. In the Federation, it got stuck on the appointment of Marin Vukoja, in the RS on blackmail about the departure of foreign judges. In practice, from the beginning of the new year, no judge will come from RS. From a legal point of view, this does not represent a problem for the functioning of the Court.
“There are no obstacles to adopting decisions in relation to all types of jurisdiction and to making legally binding decisions. This is not affected by the fact that none of those six judges is from the RS, for the reason that the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not provide for any entity or ethnic or any other conditionality. The only condition is that there are at least five judges in the decision-making quorum,” explains constitutional law expert Nedim Ademović.
Political pressures, blockades and demands are not new in our country. Challenges in the functioning of this institution – have been present for a long time.
“We cannot allow the Constitutional Court to be blocked and not continue its work. According to the quorum, five judges are needed. The Constitutional Court is trying in every way to fight the challenges that are currently before the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Considering who elects these judges, of course it all has to do with politics,” said Valerija Galić, President of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“RS is boycotting the election of judges as a form of political resistance of that entity towards state bodies. On the other hand, there is another problem in the Federation. The leading ethnonational parties are used to judges firstly dividing the four federal judges into ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’, and secondly to the judges being under political patronage. The election or the participation of the Troika in this election now conflicts with the old way HDZ is used to and still calculates,” says Ademović.
It has to do with politics, but – as usual, the citizens will pay. In addition to complications in proceedings, the non-functioning of the Constitutional Court in the country also represents the collapse of the legal system.
“Citizens do not have a mode to choose now. The same thing happens to colleagues from the RS, I’m talking about the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is evident that we do not solve the ordinary problems of us citizens. We remain unresponsive to appeals and complaints. And in order to turn to the court in Strasbourg, everything must go through the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, explains lawyer Senad Kreho.
“This means that the court will work at the minimum capacity and that it is ‘barely surviving’, and this must not be allowed. There is still time, the Constitutional Court needs to be filled. This means that the legal system does not work. You write an appeal that there is no one to resolve,” Adamović points out.
We remind you that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is competent to decide on disputes between two entities, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entities, and disputes between the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as on matters of protection of the vital national interest of the constituent peoples. However, we have reached political issues from judicial issues.
