Institutional reform of the Appellate System at the Court of B&H and a proposal for the establishment of a new judicial instance in B&H Cover Image

Institucionalna reforma apelacionog sistema na Sudu BiH i prijedlog za osnivanje nove sudske instance u BiH
Institutional reform of the Appellate System at the Court of B&H and a proposal for the establishment of a new judicial instance in B&H

Author(s): Meddžida Kreso
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law
Published by: Fondacija Centar za javno pravo
Keywords: Institutional reform; Appellate System; Court; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Law; judicial instance; Constitution;

Summary/Abstract: There is a clear need in Bosnia and Herzegovina to ensure equal opportunity to all subjects of law throughout its territory to enforce their civil rights, but also guarantees provided in the criminal procedure, and create a single economic space, which is an express obligation arising from the B&H Constitution. However, although the B&H Constitution awards an express authority to the State of B&H over this and many other areas, the courts do not have a mechanism that would secure a uniform application of the state level legislation. Very often we hear arguments that the few areas that fall within the state authority, and/or state level legislation, do not give sufficient grounds to take measures. On the other hand, it is impossible to deny the fact that the number of state level laws that define private rights is on the rise. Such laws include: Consumer Protection Act, Copyrights and Related Rights Act, Law on Collective Enforcement of Copyrights and Related Rights, Seal Act, Patent Act, Industrial Design Act and many others. Furthermore, regardless of how “small” this area of state-level laws is, the fact remains that there is no mechanism in place to secure their uniform application. Therefore, it is very important to properly define the jurisdiction of the new court in order to fulfill the obligations of harmonizing the legislation to the extent required by the state Constitution and the obligations towards the EU. Also, an adequate mechanism of judicial protection should be secured for everything that is incorporated in the state legislation, either after taking over the EU acquis communitaire or resulting from an agreement of the entities. We have demonstrated that in the absence of such a mechanism no complete enforcement of rights is possible, therefore the EU accession requirements cannot be satisfied.

  • Issue Year: 3/2012
  • Issue No: 7
  • Page Range: 61-69
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian