Review article
https://doi.org/doi.org/10.52328/t.7.2.7
Ethnicization of constitutional law of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a product of the relationship of three political realities
Davor Trlin
; International Burch University, Sarajevo
Abstract
The political elites in Bosnia and Herzegovina are in the process of shaping the constitutional and political system since the beginning of the democratic transition focused on ethnicity. All three sides – Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats – with the strong intervention of the international community, did everything possible the new constitutional agreement should be in accordance with the “agreement of the people”, which can be denoted but with the term “exclusive ethnocracy”. Dayton Peace Agreement, with Annex 4 of that agreement as the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was the final stage of constitutional development in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This legal-political act adopted the principle of constitutiveness of all three peoples and two entities were founded: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic Srpska. Alija Izetbegović, president of the Democratic Action Party, and former president of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, managed to the Constitutional
Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a decision which established that all constituent peoples equal on the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The paper will investigate the degree the influence of political elites on the ethnicization of the constitutional system of BiH. It also answers the question whether the ethnicization of constitutional law was also the goal of the Party of Democratic Action from the beginning.
Keywords
Dayton Agreement; the constitution of nations; entities; constitutional law; ethnicization; Constitutional Court
Hrčak ID:
323527
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2024.
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