The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held today its regular 61^st session of the Grand Chamber and 7^th session of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (composed of six national judges).

Within the 61^st session of the Grand Chamber, pursuant to Article 18(3) of its Rules, the Constitutional Court rejected a number of appeals lodged in an untimely fashion, either after the expiration of time-limit for the submission of appeal or prematurely, and in the cases in which it was established that the appellants failed to use all available legal remedies in the preceding proceedings.

Deciding on the appeals related to Article II(3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6(1) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in regards to the adoption of a decision on admissibility and merits within a reasonable time-limit, the Court adopted a number of decisions establishing a violation of the appellants’ rights to a fair trial and dismissed a certain number of appeals as ill-founded in cases in which it found no such violation.

It is observed that for different reasons the courts and administrative authorities do not abide, to a sufficient extent, by the standards of the right to a fair trial from Article II (3)(e) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 6 paragraph 1 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The result of the aforesaid is a significant number of appeals filed with the Constitutional Court of BiH with regards to the right to a fair trial, in particular with regards to failure to adopt decisions within reasonable time. 

In the cases in which the Court established that there was a violation of the appellants’ right to a fair trial, the competent courts or administrative authorities were ordered to complete the proceedings urgently and to inform the Constitutional Court, within a time-limit of three months from the date of delivery of the relevant decisions, on the measures taken to enforce the decisions. 

The Constitutional Court rejected the appeals that were manifestly prima facie ill-founded. The facts the appellants presented to the Court in those cases could not have in any manner justified the claim of the appellants that there was a violation of their rights protected by the Constitution or that the parties to the proceedings bear the consequences of the violation of rights protected by the Constitution.

All decisions taken at the session are to be delivered to the appellants within one month time-limit and posted on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the 7^th session, composed of six national judges, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Rulebook on Internal Operations in the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Rulebook fully regulates the internal operations in Constitutional Court of BIH that are not covered by other internal acts of the Court and contents and appearance of the forms attached to the Rulebook.

Internal operations include all administrative, technical, professional, IT  and other auxiliary tasks significant for the work of the Court, separate from the process of adoption of decision in the cases arising under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court. These are: receiving, opening, inspection, recording and distribution of mail and documents; record books and book of classification of cases, distribution of cases and documents for further processing, return of the completed cases into the Registry Office, discharge of cases; distribution of mail, archiving of case-files; reception of interested parties and their access to the case-files; seals and stamps and official documents.