Nedim Ademović: We are heading into legal anarchy

The fact that Republika Srpska will not accept the Decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH if it challenges January 9th as the day of this BiH entity is unimaginable for legal experts. 

Constitutional law expert Nedim Ademović told the BiH news agency Patria that he is not aware of any institution or group of people in any country in the region or in the whole of Europe that has failed to respect the decisions of the constitutional court.

Finally, Ademović says, disrespecting the decision of the Constitutional Court in BiH, as in other democratic countries, would be a criminal offense.

- It is unacceptable for public authorities, elected in democratic elections, to pass a legal act calling for disrespect of the decision of the highest court in the country. This not only represents a denial of the Constitutional Court of BiH, but also a violation of one of the fundamental principles of democracy, which is that the state functions on the basis of legal acts that must be implemented – said Ademović.

He added that he can understand that public opinion, and even authorities, may have negative or positive criticism of the Constitutional Court's decisions or the work of judges, but that someone calling for obstruction of the Constitutional Court's decisions is unacceptable.

The consequences of disrespecting the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH, Ademović says, can be multiple for our country. Not only does disrespecting the decisions of the Constitutional Court in BiH create a sense of legal uncertainty, but it also opens up the possibility that tomorrow someone else will deem it their right not to respect the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH.

- In that case, we are heading into legal anarchy – Ademović told NAP. This would not only worsen relations within BiH, but also slow down BiH on its path to the European Union, he said.

Deputies in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska adopted a Declaration defining that Republika Srpska will not accept the decision of the Constitutional Court of BiH if it challenges January ninth as the date of marking the day of this BiH entity. The Constitutional Court will make a decision based on the request for review of the constitutionality of the Law on Holidays in Republika Srpska, which was submitted by Bakir Izetbegović, the Bosniak member of the BiH Presidency.