Standard “dovoljno ozbiljne povrede” kao osnov odgovornosti države za štetu u pravu Bosne i Hercegovine
The “sufficiently serious breach” standard as the basis of state liability for damage in the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the “sufficiently serious breach” standard as a contemporary criterion of State liability in the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with particular emphasis on the harmonised legal position adopted by the Civil Law Case-Law Harmonisation Panel on 7 October 2025. The central argument is that the Panel did not create a new source of liability; rather, it institutionally consolidated and systematised a line of reasoning already visible in domestic case law, most explicitly in the case law of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2012. The paper analyses the fragmented statutory framework, the transition from a fault-oriented approach based on intention or consent to a qualified standard of unlawfulness, and the European origins of the seriousness criterion. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between Article 172 of the Law on Obligations and specific public-law provisions, the legal authority of the Panel’s position, the criteria of clarity, discretion, excusability of legal error and departure from established case law, and the separate role of the consequences imposed on the injured party. The paper proposes that the emerging Bosnian model is best understood as objectivised liability subject to a qualified threshold of unlawfulness and develops a two-stage test for future judicial application.

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