Galić: BiH Prosecutor's Office not active in cases of non-enforcement of Constitutional Court decisions, Buk Bijela still an open case

(Patria) - President of the Constitutional Court of BiH Valerija Galić stated that due to the lack of one judge, the Grand Chamber is not functioning and cases are being resolved in plenary sessions which are convened every other month.

"We have to resolve a larger number of appeals in Plenary sessions. We receive 4,500 cases annually. The largest number is from the appellate jurisdiction," Galić told Face TV.

She added that she is concerned about the non-compliance and non-enforcement of the Constitutional Court of BiH decisions, as this calls into question the principle of the rule of law.

"The political responsibility of certain entities that are supposed to respect decisions is being questioned."

Speaking about state property, Galić emphasized that BiH is the successor to property that belonged to BiH and was state property of the Republic of BiH.

"By continuity, according to the Constitution, the property belongs to BiH. By adopting laws at the state level, principles and criteria for the distribution of state property should be established, how it will be distributed among entities, cantons, and Brčko District. During the time of High Representatives Paddy Ashdown and Christian Schwarz-Schilling, the Law on the Prohibition of Disposal of State Property was adopted. What is forgotten is that the Parliamentary Assembly accepted that law on the prohibition of disposal of state property in 2007. And now, in Republika Srpska, it is not mentioned at all that this law was accepted by the BiH Parliamentary Assembly. The law determined the scope of that property, what is considered that property, and established that until a special law or act is passed by the state, that property is under a disposal ban," said Galić.

Galić emphasized that the Constitutional Court of BiH has annulled decisions of regular courts that registered or de-registered state property.

"The interpretation of regular courts is that the Law on Real Rights of FBiH, according to the principle of lex posterior (a law enacted after the Law on the Prohibition of Disposal of Property), is more significant than the earlier one. We have annulled those decisions and established a violation of state property. Some regular courts have suspended proceedings where property was being registered or re-registered to the local level of government," she said.

She emphasized that the Constitutional Court of BiH monitors the implementation of its decisions but does not have a mechanism to order that a decision must be enforced.

"When the Constitutional Court determines that a decision should be enforced within a certain period, we monitor whether it has been enforced within that period. The only thing it can do is issue a decision on non-enforcement and submit it to the competent prosecutor's office, and the prosecutor's office should then take action. The prosecutor's office should be a bit more active when it comes to non-enforcement of decisions; they have not shown much activity so far," said the President of the Constitutional Court of BiH.

Regarding the case of the construction of hydroelectric power plants on the Drina River, which is state property, Galić confirmed that the case is still open before the Constitutional Court.

"We have dealt with this issue; the case is still open before the Constitutional Court; it is a matter of concession for Buk Bijela. The Constitutional Court has determined that there is a dispute between Republika Srpska and BiH, but that is a matter for the Concessions Commission. But there are problems there too; there was a dispute before the court related to commission members. We have submitted a decision on the non-enforcement of a partial decision of the Constitutional Court. There is a dispute, and that dispute should be resolved by the Concessions Commission. We have submitted that decision to the BiH Prosecutor's Office. According to the Law on Concessions, this issue should be resolved by the Commission. This issue can come before us if the Commission eventually resolves it, and then one party is not satisfied and files an appeal," concluded Galić.