The BiH Constitutional Commission rejected this week a proposal, authored by Republika Srpska officials, to reform the BiH Constitutional Court. The proposal would, among other reforms, replace the foreign judges, whose continued presence on the court so long after the Dayton Peace Agreement has been widely criticized.
The BiH House of Representatives held a vote on Wednesday to either accept the Commission’s recommendation, or to send the reform plan back to the Commission for further consideration. Members of Parliament from both the majority coalition and the opposition voted against the Commission’s recommendation. Representatives of the SNSD and SDS were joined by the HDZ and other Croat and Serb parties; only the predominantly Bosniak SDA and DF supported the Commission.
The movement to reform the Constitutional Court, which has broad support in both Republika Srpska and the Federation, is driven by the fact that the Court’s three foreign judges frequently vote with the two Bosniak members to overrule the four Serb and Croat judges, effectively giving the Bosniak members of the Court the final say in any contentious case.
