On requests for abstract review of constitutionality
With a view to more effectively fulfilling its obligation arising under Article VI(2)(b) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to which the Constitutional Court shall, among other things, issue reasons for its decisions which shall be published, this Summary presents the Constitutional Court’s case law of abstract review of constitutionality, or, the U cases. These are the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH on review-of-constitutionality requests lodged pursuant to Article VI(3)(a) and Article VI(3)(c) of the Constitution of BiH, adopted in application of a professional and meticulous approach to each individual request.
The Summary includes the case law of the Constitutional Court so far, from the establishment of the new Constitutional Court of BiH stipulated by the Constitution of BiH contained in Annex 4 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH.
The Summary presents the decisions on requests for review of constitutionality by hierarchical level of governments in BiH, specifically, for the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Entities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska, the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Cantons in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Summary clearly demonstrates the Court’s deliberation manner, that is, in which situations the Court established the incompatibility and in which it established the compatibility of a challenged act with the Constitution of BiH. There is a considerable number of the authorized applicants’ requests for review of constitutionality in which partial incompatibility and/or partial compatibility with the Constitution was established.
The Summary of the case law is intended for legal professionals, who will thus have an insight into the detailed data of the Constitutional Court’s case law of abstract review of constitutionality. It is also intended for citizens, to whom the decisions are directly presented in this way. It is also intended for journalists who report about the issues from the Constitutional Court’s jurisdiction and case law, so that the information could be found in one place on all issues from the realm of abstract review of constitutionality that the Court has decided so far. They could also view the manner in which the Court has done it, and also a particular decision with detailed reasons on the Court’s web page, and thus be able to inform the citizens of BiH more easily, objectively and extensively.
We sincerely hope for a success of our idea with the citizens and, particularly, with investigative journalists who are not satisfied with just information without presenting its essence!
