Court of BiH ruled: HJPC must amend its Rules of Procedure, candidates do not need five years of experience in the position they are applying for

(Patria) - The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 5 August 2025 issued a final judgment accepting the request to repeal the provisions of Article 49, paragraph 5, items b) and c) of the Rules of Procedure of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH.

Attorney Dragan Đukić, who represented nine applicants, confirmed to Patria that the HJPC is obliged to amend its Rules of Procedure in accordance with this judgment.

“The judgment will be published in the Official Gazette of BiH, and from that moment the deadline for the HJPC to amend the Rules of Procedure begins,” said Đukić. He could not specify the deadline by which the HJPC must amend the Rules of Procedure.

He noted that these amendments to the Rules of Procedure will apply to future competitions and will have no retroactive effect.

What does the repeal of these provisions mean?

In March 2023, the HJPC amended Article 49, paragraph 5, which reads:

(5) Regardless of the number of points achieved according to the expertise criterion, a candidate will not be invited for an interview if:

a) in the court or prosecutor's office for which they applied, a blood relative in the direct line without limitation, in the collateral line up to the fourth degree, or a spouse, extramarital partner, or relative by marriage, or relative of the extramarital partner, up to the second degree, is employed in a judicial office;

b) they are a holder of a judicial office and have spent less than five years in the position from which they are applying, counting until the day of the deadline for submitting applications;

c) they are a court president or chief prosecutor and have applied for a vacant position during the term of their first mandate for which they were appointed;

d) if they are covered by the rules from Article 48 of these Rules of Procedure, counting until the day of the deadline for submitting applications.

(6) The rule from paragraph (5), items a) and b) of this article does not apply to candidates who already perform the function of judge, additional judge, deputy prosecutor, or prosecutor in the judicial institution to which they are applying.

(7) The rule from paragraph (5), item b) of this article does not apply to candidates who are in the position of additional judge and are applying for the position of judge or prosecutor in another court or prosecutor's office.

(8) A candidate who has applied for advertised positions within one or more public competitions that have not been concluded, and in the meantime has been appointed to a judicial office, will not participate in the further competition procedure for the said competitions."

By deleting these two paragraphs, future competitions will allow applications from candidates who do not have five years of experience in the position from which they are applying for another position, thus creating a broader base for the selection of judicial office holders and possible advancement or change of position.

Regarding the second deleted paragraph, this means that judicial office holders who are court presidents or chief prosecutors will also be allowed to apply for other positions, as under the provisions of the Rules of Procedure they could not do so until their mandate in those positions expired.

Given the deletion of these two provisions of Article 49, the HJPC should also delete paragraph 8, which was added in October 2024 when it was specified that the five-year period in that position does not apply to the deputy chief prosecutor, but rather the continuous period of work in the judicial office in the prosecutor's office where the candidate performs the function of deputy.

The then HJPC President Halil Lagumdžija proposed these amendments to possibly enable one of the deputy chief prosecutors who was a candidate for taking over another position in the judiciary. This concerned Džermin Pašić, who was aspiring for the position of head of POSKOK, but without this amendment to the Rules of Procedure he would not have been considered.

With the judgment of the Court of BiH, all judicial office holders, regardless of whether they have five years or less, can now apply for all positions, thus in a way correcting discrimination but also opening space for more candidates for judicial positions.

This is precisely one of the criticisms in analyses of the BiH judiciary, that few candidates apply for competitions, precisely because these conditions were a hindering or eliminating factor.