Constitutional Court of BiH is clear: The state is the successor and should resolve the property issue by state law

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The President of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Mato Tadić stated that at this moment, the court has not received any request for an assessment of constitutionality related to the transfer of jurisdiction from the state level of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the entity of Republika Srpska.

"We have 12-13 cases for constitutionality assessment. Regarding the transfer of jurisdiction, I know that the law on the agency for medicines has been passed. That law has been published, but it has not entered into force, and proceedings cannot be initiated before the Constitutional Court of BiH if it has not entered into force," Tadić emphasized at a press conference.

He added that the draft law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Republika Srpska, which was adopted in its first draft, has also not entered into force.

"What would happen hypothetically? If a request for an assessment of constitutionality, or rather compliance with the BiH Constitution, of any request appears before the Constitutional Court, the Court will consider it at a session, and I cannot prejudge what the decision will be. Otherwise, these cases have priority, and there are not many of them," Tadić said.

Whose state property is it?

Tadić stated that the decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH are often misinterpreted.

"The Constitutional Court did not say that entities cannot be owners and that only BiH must be the owner. The Court problematized certain issues and said that this should be regulated by an umbrella law at the state level," Tadić said.

He explained that there are various property records in BiH. He stated that some are registered as state property, some as socially owned, and that there is property registered in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, in the Independent State of Croatia, with the Presidency of Yugoslavia, or with the Federal Executive Council.

"In Republika Srpska, we have a facility in Manjača registered to the Federal Secretariat for National Defense. In our decision, we state that it is necessary to adopt an umbrella law at the state level. The successor of former Yugoslavia is not the Federation of BiH, nor is it Republika Srpska, but the state. Whether it will say that everything is registered to the Federation or Republika Srpska or Brčko District of BiH is not our problem. The state should resolve this with that law. I said this last year. No one will transfer forests from one entity to another. They will be managed by whoever has been managing them until now," Tadić said.

He emphasized that the High Representative of the international community also imposed a law and prohibited the disposal of that property precisely because it had not been resolved by state law.

Mirsad Ćeman, Deputy President of the Constitutional Court of BiH, stated that in cases concerning forests and agricultural land in Republika Srpska, and hydroelectric power plants to be built around Foča, the Constitutional Court did not deal with the issue of ownership.

"They state what the President of the Constitutional Court of BiH said. I assume that an umbrella law will be passed in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, similar to the umbrella law on privatization, and then the entities and the Brčko District will regulate this issue through their laws. That umbrella law will determine what property belongs to which level of government. That is the essence, not that land or forests of Republika Srpska have been taken away by the decisions of the Constitutional Court," Ćeman added.

Electoral Law is a political issue

Speaking about the amendments to the BiH Election Law, parts of which were annulled by the Constitutional Court in the "Ljubić" case, Tadić stated that this court is not a political body and does not participate in any way in discussions about amendments.

"We made our decision in 2016 and finished with it. In 2017, we received notification from the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH that our decision had not been implemented. No one has asked us for any opinion, nor will we get involved. This is a matter of politics. Proceedings can be initiated against certain decisions of the Central Election Commission of BiH. We have had such cases. Our decision states that the Parliamentary Assembly is instructed to harmonize it," Tadić said, as reported by RSE.