Today, on 23 November 2016, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held its regular 46th session of the Grand Chamber.
The Constitutional Court adopted a number of decisions rejecting as inadmissible the appeals, which were prima facie manifestly ill-founded, on the grounds that the appellant’s claims were unjustified. This is to say that the facts, which the appellants presented to the Court in such cases, could in no way justify the appellants’ claim that there existed a violation of their rights safeguarded under the Constitution, or that the appellants, as parties to the proceedings, bore the consequences of violations of the rights safeguarded under the Constitution.
The Court rejected a number of appeals lodged in an untimely fashion after the expiration of the time-limit for lodging an appeal, or lodged prematurely in cases where the Court established that the appellants failed to use all available legal remedies in the preceding proceedings.
For the illustration purposes solely, the following has been singled out:
The Constitutional Court of BiH rejected as inadmissible the appeal lodged by the Republika Srpska against the Verdict of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which upheld the first-instance verdict of that court in the part establishing the right of ownership of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the real properties registered in the interim list of real properties of the Republic Administration for Geodetic and Property-Legal Affairs of the Republika Srpska - Han-Pijesak Regional Office, comprising the facility of the Ministry of Defense and grazing land of class IV, with the total surface area of 11,474.00 m2, ordering the Republic Administration for Geodetic and Property-Legal Affairs of the Republika Srpska to register the right of ownership on the mentioned real properties in the name of Bosnia and Herzegovina and to erase the entries of all the rights of the appellant as the defendant with the registered right on the respective real properties, which the Republika Srpska was obliged to bear.
The appeal was rejected as inadmissible, for being premature, because it was lodged before the adoption of the decision by the competent court on the lodged legal remedy. Namely, on 27 September 2016, the appellant (Republika Srpska) lodged a revision-appeal with the Court of BiH against the second-instance verdict.
It is in the interest of the appellants to exhaust all possibilities for decision-making before ordinary courts, in accordance with positive regulations. Considering the exceptions provided for in the applicable provisions of the Law on Civil Procedure before the Court of BiH, according to which the competent court may allow revision-appeal in all cases, by adopting its decision before the competent court adopted a decision on the revision-appeal lodged, the Constitutional Court would prejudge that issue.
After the adoption of a decision on the request of the Republika Srpska for the revision-appeal against the second-instance verdict, irrespective of the content of that decision, the appellant has a possibility to re-lodge the appeal.
In keeping with the conclusion that the appeal was premature, the Constitutional Court concluded that there was no basis to consider the appellant’s proposal for an interim measure to suspend the enforcement of the decisions of the Court of BiH.
Deciding on the appeals with respect to the adoption of decisions within a reasonable time-limit, on admissibility and merits, the Court adopted a number of decisions establishing violations of the appellants’ right to a fair trial, i.e. it dismissed appeals as unfounded in cases where it concluded that no such violations occurred.
In all cases where it found the existence of violations of the appellants’ right to a fair trial, the Court ordered the competent courts or administrative authorities to finalize the proceedings urgently and to inform the Court, within three months from the date of the submission of the decision, of the measures taken with a view to enforce the decisions.
All decisions adopted at the session will be delivered to the appellants within one month and published on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
