VKBI Public Forum: Proposed Laws on the Court of BiH and HJPC Should Not Be Adopted, Court's Jurisdictions Completely Ignored

(Patria) - At the initiative of a number of delegates from the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, on Monday, 26 May 2025, a public forum of the Council of the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals was held on the proposed laws on the Court of BiH and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), which are in parliamentary procedure. Decisions on some of these proposals are expected to be made on Thursday, 29 May.

Several different proposals for these laws are before the delegates and members of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH. With the alleged justification that these are so-called European laws, an urgent procedure has been requested to exclude any discussion and possible amendment improvements to the offered texts.

"Experts pointed out numerous shortcomings of the proposed laws. They emphasised that the optimal solution would be the establishment of a supreme court, which, as in all other countries, should ensure the uniform application of law throughout the entire state territory, and thus the equality of all citizens. Since there is no political agreement on this, every effort should be made at this stage to improve the proposed texts.

The European Union's demands are to adopt a reform law on courts in BiH, not on the Court of BiH. It has also been requested that the Appellate Chamber, as a second-instance panel, should be a functionally and physically separate institution, not just a department within the Court of BiH.

The public debate has been imposed on the choice of the seat of the Appellate Chamber, while the discussion on the jurisdiction of the Court has been completely ignored. It is unacceptable to propose narrowing this jurisdiction and thus take a step backwards compared to existing solutions. Therefore, the possibility was considered that other authorised proposers submit laws containing acceptable solutions to the parliamentary procedure.

Regarding the Law on the HJPC, attention was drawn to the unsustainable practice of ignoring all the numerous amendments of this expert and regulatory body, which should significantly influence the achievement of the independence of the entire judicial system.

It was pointed out that in the preparation of these laws, which have long been on the agenda, public consultations were not used, nor is it known whether and which experts were consulted. Instead, each proposer of the law tries to inaugurate the views of their own political option," the statement reads.