Trojka wants to elect Vukoja, who resolved 0 cases, for the Constitutional Court, but does not want Gorušanović-Butigan with 5,000 verdicts

(Patria) - Mirjana Marinković Lepić (Our Party) scheduled the 4th regular session of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH for July 25, 2023. From the agenda, we learn that there are no essentially important materials for citizens and that the session was called for a new attempt to appoint HDZ's Marin Vukoja as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the last session, we witnessed unprecedented legal violence, an attempt at fraud and humiliation of the Parliament of the Federation, in that the Trojka and HDZ, contrary to all rules, scheduled an emergency session, and then included on its agenda a false report from the session of the Commission for Selection and Appointment, which was never held.

The institution of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been brought to the brink of moral and professional humiliation by the proposal to appoint Marin Vukoja as a judge of this court. Nevertheless, our public wonders how Vukoja became the "best-rated" candidate and why that "rating" is far from the truth?

The general public was informed by the Trojka that some "expert commission" in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation selected Marin Vukoja as the "best candidate" for judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH because he had the "most points." Sanela Gorušanović Butigan is the "second best candidate" because she had "half a point less."

So that the wider public can understand the essential difference in the quality of the candidates, we will examine below how "expert" the commission is, and leave the answer to the question of who is the "best candidate" for each individual to conclude.

Marin Vukoja graduated in 1998 from the Faculty of Law in Mostar. He passed the bar exam only in 2007. He spent his entire professional career in the civil service. He was a professional associate in the Professional Service and later head of department in the Assembly of the West Herzegovina Canton.

After that, he served as secretary of the Government of the West Herzegovina Canton. He reached the state level of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015 when he became secretary of the House of Peoples, and from 2017 he moved to the position of secretary of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In terms of political engagement, it is worth noting that Marin Vukoja was a candidate of HDZ for delegate in the state House of Peoples.

Sanela Gorušanović Butigan graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Sarajevo in 1998. After completing her internship at the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, she immediately passed the bar exam.

As a judicial professional associate (also a judicial function), she worked from passing the bar exam until her appointment as a judge of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo in 2007 - civil division. Also, Judge Gorušanović Butigan serves as a judge in the land registry office of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo.

As a respected and accomplished member of the judicial community, in June 2020 she was elected a member and vice-president of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the last report in which she participated before her election to the HJPC BiH, Judge Gorušanović Butigan achieved 110.85% of the prescribed case norm, i.e., she resolved 298 cases. That is 298 verdicts written in one calendar year. From 2001, when she was appointed as a judicial professional associate, until today, if she wrote 200 verdicts each year, that would amount to more than 5,000 written verdicts and processed cases.

Judge Gorušanović Butigan has made a personal and professional contribution to the judicial and academic community through participation and lectures at a large number of domestic and international seminars and conferences.

She is the author of professional and scientific papers, and her narrower field of professional and scientific interest is the protection of the right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, with special reference to the work of the media in protection against defamation.

HDZ's appointee Marin Vukoja, from his experience with human rights in the area of protecting the right to freedom of expression, can highlight his call to journalists at a session of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina when he said, "I would ask journalists to type more gently on the keyboard, because it disturbs Chairperson Krišto during the session of the House of Representatives. Thank you."

In terms of practical experience, he read the Rules of Procedure of the executive and legislative bodies, prepared materials for sessions, and probably wrote acts related to regulating labor rights for his subordinates.

Ultimately, we come to the realization that the "expert commission" of the Trojka and HDZ rated as the better candidate for judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina a career civil servant who read the Rules of Procedure and told journalists to quiet their keyboards because it bothered Borjana Krišto, over a judge with more than 20 years of experience and well over 5,000 written verdicts, a large number of professional and scientific papers, and a respected legal expert who is a member and vice-president of the HJPC BiH. Given the foregoing, it is tragicomic to call such a commission "expert."

Judge Sanela Gorušanović Butigan is an accomplished holder of a judicial function and a respected member of the judicial community. She possesses strong personal and professional integrity and intellectual capacity.

She will ensure that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to grow and strengthen as a state institution, as a guarantor of the protection of the constitutional order, competencies, and property of the state, but also as a court on which every citizen can rely to protect their human rights.

It is hard to imagine a more competent person to defend the state's right to its property than a judge who is by profession a land registry judge. On the other hand, what Vukoja can bring you, conclude for yourselves.

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the few state institutions whose work Dodik and Čović have not yet managed to block, and turn the blockade into a political weapon for achieving their national policies. When it comes to voting in the House of Representatives, each representative will live with their conscience.

Whether they sent to the Constitutional Court Marin Vukoja, a civil servant, or the respected judge Sanela Gorušanović Butigan with over 5,000 written verdicts, more than 20 years of judicial experience, and a narrower specialty in land registry law, which is the essence of state property.

(M.T.)