News in English     | 14.05.2020. 13:17 |

BiHPA Committee rejects Draft Law on election of judges to Constitutional Court

FENA Aida Kovač

SARAJEVO, May 14 (FENA) - The Constitutional Committee of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly today asserted that there was no compliance with the Constitution and the legal system of BiH and rejected the principles of the Draft Law on Election of Judges of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina previously elected by the President of the European Court of Human Rights.

This law was proposed by MPs: Nebojša Radmanović, Snježana Novaković-Bursač, Nenad Stevandić, Nenad Nešić, Jakov Galić, Obren Petrović, Dragan Bogdanić, Sanja Vulić, Ljubica Miljanović, Borjana Kristo, Nikola Lovrinović, Mijo Matanović, Predrag Kožul and Darijana Filipović. 

Explaining the proposed legislation, one of the proponents of the law, Snježana Novaković-Bursač, said that the constitutional basis for the proposal is contained in the provisions of the Constitution that deal with the possibility for the BiH Parliamentary Assembly to pass a law five years after signing the General Framework Agreement for Peace which would regulate in a different manner the election of judges of the Constitutional Court of BiH elected by the President of the European Court of Human Rights.

"The law stipulates that the general conditions for the election of judges are for them to be citizens of BiH, to be lawyers with knowledge and integrity. This latest proposal foresees the appointment of judges by the Presidency of BiH, and to be confirmed in the House of Peoples of the Parliament of BiH. The proponents of this proposal also advocate for the mandate of the three foreign judges appointed by the President of the European Court of Human Rights to end on the day this law enters into force," Novaković-Bursač explained.

After the session, a member of the Constitutional Law Commission, Borjana Krišto, told reporters that the proposed law has a constitutional basis and that it is time for BiH to take its responsibility when it comes to appointing judges to the Constitutional Court, "which decides primarily as a corrective factor on the Constitution, i.e., on the constitutionality of  laws and acts."

"The Constitution of BiH has left possibilities and in a way created an obligation for us that after five years of the first mandate of foreign judges, the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH decides how and in what way it will elect them from that point forward," stated Krišto.

Chairwoman of the Constitutional Committee, Alma Čolo, said that the House of Representatives would be forwarded a negative opinion on the proposed law, because there was no majority in the Committee that would support the principles of the law and its compliance with the BiH Constitution and the legal system.

She says she voted against because she believes the three judges elected by the president of the European Court of Human Rights is "something defined by the Constitution and in order to change that, we have to change the Constitution in that part itself".

"Three judges elected by the President of the European Court of Human Rights, in consultation with the Presidency, that provision must be changed in the Constitution itself in order to replace the three judges with domestic judges," stated Čolo.

She added that the SDA is against foreign judges leaving the Constitutional Court at the moment.

"In our opinion, these are judges who are excellent lawyers, come from developed democratic systems, and try to transfer their knowledge to the Constitutional Court of BiH, and that is very much visible in the decisions of the Constitutional Court," stated Čolo.

(FENA) S. R.

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