What should be taken into account when filing an appeal?

The Constitutional Court shall examine an appeal only if all effective remedies that are available under the law against a judgment or decision challenged by the appeal are exhausted and if the appeal is filed within a time-limit of 60 days (time-limit is computed in days and not months) as from the date on which the decision on the last remedy used by the appellant was served on him/her. A supplement to the appeal may be filed only within the time-limit running for the appeal.

If the appellant files a petition for review and if it is rejected as inadmissible by the ruling of the competent court, the Constitutional Court will consider the petition for review in this case as an ineffective legal remedy. Therefore, the decisions of the second instance court shall be final in the relevant cases. Therefore, the petition for review as an extraordinary legal remedy shall be considered effective and the decision on petition for review shall be considered final only in cases where that legal remedy is either granted or rejected by ordinary courts.

Exceptionally, the Constitutional Court may examine an appeal when there is no decision of a competent court, if the appeal indicates a grave violation of the rights and fundamental freedoms safeguarded by the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina or by the international documents applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Constitutional Court shall reject an appeal as being manifestly (prima facie) ill-founded when it establishes that there is no justified request of the party to the proceedings, or that the presented facts cannot justify the allegation of the existence of a violation of the rights safeguarded by the Constitution. In addition, when the Constitutional Court establishes that the party to the proceedings has not suffered the consequences of a violation of the rights safeguarded by the Constitution, so that the examination of the merits of the appeal is unnecessary.

The Constitutional Court shall reject an appeal where it establishes that the appellant has not suffered a significant damage unless the compliance with the human rights, as defined in the Constitution, requires the consideration of an appeal on the merits (Article 18 of the Rules).