The Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held today its 73rd
ordinary session.
In accordance with Article 18(3) of the Rules of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Constitutional Court rejected a number of appeals lodged in an untimely fashion, after the expiration of the time-limit for submitting appeals, or prematurely in cases in which it was established that the appellants failed to use all available legal remedies in the previous proceedings.
Deciding on the appeals with regards 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 with regards to the adoption of a decision within a reasonable time-limit, the Constitutional Court adopted a number of decisions establishing a violation of the appellants’ rights to a fair trial and dismissed as ill-founded a certain number of appeals in cases in which it found no such a violation.
For the illustration purposes we note the following:
In the decision with regards to the appeal no. AP 2128/18 challenging the ruling adopted in the proceedings of enforcement of minor offence sanctions depriving the appellant of liberty for the period of two days for her failure to pay the fine, the Constitutional Court established the violation of the right to liberty and security of person. Constitutional Court, inter alia, emphasized that the Cantonal Court did not address the appellant’s allegations by which she questioned the identity of person the ruling relates to, the issue of statute of limitation and possibility to pay the fine and thereby the very existence of “lawful order” as grounds for deprivation of liberty.
The Court rejected the appeals which were manifestly (prima facie) ill-founded. The facts the appellants presented to the Court could not in any manner justify the claim of the appellants on the existence of violation of their rights protected by the Constitution or that the parties to the proceedings do not bear consequences of the violation of the alleged rights as 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.
