Politics between the judge and the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina

For more than a year, the position of judge of the Constitutional Judge of BiH, who is elected from the Federation of BiH, has been vacant.

The working group in charge of conducting the procedure announced the call, conducted interviews with the candidates, made a ranking list of the candidates and forwarded it to the Commission for Elections and Appointments of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament. It’s been there for months.

Before we continue, it is worth mentioning that a judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not need judicial experience. The condition is that judges must be “prominent lawyers of high moral standing”. Likewise, in the Rules of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is defined that the function of a judge of the Constitutional Court is incompatible with membership in a political party or political organization in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Now, let’s go back to the ranking list of candidates sent to the Commission. Marin Vukoja was the best-ranked candidate.

Opposition political actors problematized the election of Vukoja due to his lack of judicial experience and his closeness to the HDZ.

It is clear from the biography that Vukoja, the secretary of the House of Representatives of the state parliament, has no experience in judicial practice.

We received confirmation from the Central Election Commission that, after the 2018 General Elections, Marin Vukoja was on the HDZ BiH list for the indirect election of delegates to the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Therefore, Marin Vukoja is connected to the HDZ BiH political party.

On the other hand, in the current convocation of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the two judges are former members of the SDA, Mirsad Ceman and Seada Palavric. Before being appointed as a judge of the Constitutional Court, Ceman was the vice-president of the party, the president of the main board and a member of the SDA Presidency. Palavric was a member of the state and entity parliaments, elected in direct elections from the SDA list. Neither of them was a judge before being appointed.

The Committee for Selection and Appointments of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament is missing two members of the ruling coalition. The opposition members of the commission do not come to the scheduled sessions, so the sessions are not held due to the lack of quorum.

Another in a series of blockades in BiH continues, the appointment of a new judge of the Constitutional Court of BiH will be pending.