Details

KAS has been co-operating with the Constitutional Court of BiH since 2004 with this program as a complementary measure. Its primary purpose is to strengthen the exchange between the Constitutional Court of BiH and the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht).

The activity of the Constitutional Court of BiH is legally based on Annex 4 of the Dayton Peace Accords which contains the constitution. In the first five years, the Constitutional Court had hardly been able to operate. The role as custodian of the constitution is difficult since the Dayton Accords merely offer a vague fundament in addition to the daily challenge with interpreting this fundament.

The Constitutional Court consists of nine judges, six of whom are elected by the Entity Parliaments while the remaining three (international) judges are appointed by the president of the European Court of Human Rights. Out of the six national judges, two each belong to the three constituting peoples of Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bosniacs, Serbs, Croatians).

The Constitutional Court of BiH is one of the few national state institutions. It has animated the Dayton Accords by several verdicts and strengthened the nation state. It thus deals with highly controversial political questions and is frequently put under political pressure. Furthermore, the work of the Court is aggravated by

1. the lack of an official translation of the constitution as defined by Dayton (the judges work with different translations)

2. decision practise mostly happening with ignorance of previous verdicts and

3. a coexistence of continental-European and Anglo-Saxon law which aggravates legal practise enormously.

Since 2004, KAS (the Country Program as well as the Rule of Law Program SEE) has been co-operating successfully with the Constitutional Court of BiH and single judges. The planned program is intended as an accompanying measure to this co-operation and as a means of enhancing the exchange between the Constitutional Court of BiH and the Federal Constitutional Court, but also to foster the relationship with other high judicial institutions in Germany and on the European level.

Important topics are amongst others the formation of the Grundgesetz, the formation and role of the Federal Constitutional Court, the influence of the Federal Constitutional Court between the Federal States (Länder) and the EU, political pressure and judicial independence as well as international law issues.

P A R T I C I P A N T S

1. Seada PALAVRIĆ, President of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina

2. Valerija GALIĆ, Vice-President of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina

3. Mato TADIĆ, judge at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina

4. Mirsad ĆEMAN, judge at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina

5. Nedim ADEMOVIĆ, Director of the Presidential Office of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina