147th session of the Grand Chamber

Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina held today its regular 147th session of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Of the decisions adopted today, we single out the following:

AP 3174/20 – The Constitutional Court concluded that there was a violation of the appellant's right to a fair trial. Namely, the Supreme Court of Federation of BiH has disproportionately applied a rule on burden of proof to the detriment of the appellant and in favour of the defendant, which led to arbitrary application of rule on burden of proof. The Supreme Court of F BiH has done this without considering evidence presented during the proceedings in the favour of the appellant and circumstances that the financial expert witness examination was not carried out as the defendant did not allow inspection of its financial documentation. 

AP 3418/20 – The Constitutional Court concluded that there was a violation of the appellant’s right to a fair trial considering that regular courts in the instant case have applied regulation that was not effective. In addition, the Constitutional Court concluded that the regular courts made  an arbitrary conclusion that the newspapers in which the appellant posted a  notice, are exclusively distributed on the territory of the Republika Srpska. 

AP-3598/20 – The Constitutional Court concluded that there was a violation of the appellant’s right to an effective legal remedy. The violation was found as the Supreme Court of the Federation of BiH rejected the appellant’s lawsuit due expiration of the time limit as stipulated by Article 18 paragraph 2 of the Law on Administrative Disputes of FBiH, although it has not established with a certainty as to when the appellants were delivered challenged decisions of the second instance authority. The Supreme Court did not consider that the time limit for lodging a complaint in the administrative dispute, as stipulated by provision of Article 18 paragraph of the Law on Administrative Disputes, is calculated from the date of submission of the challenged administrative act to the party and not from the date when the party learns of the submission. 

AP 658/22 - The Constitutional Court concluded there was no violation of the appellant’s right to a fair trial. Based on the same evidence presented in the first instance proceedings, the second instance disciplinary commission for the prosecutors of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH has adopted different decision. It established the appellant’s disciplinary liability for misdemeanour and issued an adequate disciplinary measure. The second instance disciplinary commission gave sufficiently clear and well-argued reasons on this issue. 

All decisions adopted at today’s session will be delivered to the appellants within one month and published, as soon as possible, on the website of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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