The parliament of Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska voted on June 27 to reject rulings by the state-level Constitutional Court, moving closer to secession and raising political tensions in the country.

The parliament also decided to block the implementation of 14 key reforms needed to start Bosnia’s membership talks with the EU until a reform of the state-level Constitutional Court is carried out.

The resolution rejecting the validity of all acts by the state-level Constitutional Court was backed by 56 out of 65 MPs.

In his speech to parliament, President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik proposed a prison sentence for everyone who recognises the rulings of the Constitutional Court.

The moves by Republika Srpska, the smaller of Bosnia’s two entities, follow a standoff between the entity’s government on the one hand and state-level institutions and the international community’s high representative on the other. 

In April, Republika Srpska’s parliament ordered its judges in the Constitutional Court to quit. Under the rules at the time that meant it would no longer be able to operate, as sessions have to be postponed if at least three judges selected by the parliament of the Bosnian Federation and/or at least one judge selected by Republika Srpska's National Assembly are absent.

In response, the court decided to remove the article from its regulations. That angered Dodik, who gave the court a deadline until June 23 to give up the decision and threatened that otherwise Republika Srpska’s parliament would adopt an urgent decision not to recognise the court’s rulings.

Republika Srpska has called for new legislation to be adopted on the state-level Constitutional Court and will hold up the country’s EU accession progress until that happens. 

“If the parliamentary assembly of BiH disobeys the requests of representatives of Republika Srpska to proceed with the adoption of the Law on the Constitutional Court of BiH and the Law on the Election of Three Judges elected by the President of the European Court of Human Rights, we invite all representatives to withdraw from their work until these laws are adopted,” a decision by Republika Srpska’s parliament states.

The decision was adopted amid calls by the European Parliament for Bosnia to speed up reforms and start its EU membership path. MEPs also condemned the inflammatory rhetoric of Republika Srpska and the secessionist policy of its political leaders.

Denis Becirovic, the Bosniak member of the state-level tripartite presidency, urged High Representative Christian Schmidt to replace Dodik as he is breaching the Dayton peace agreement.

Secession on the horizon?

Nedim Ademovic, a constitutional law expert, said as quoted by N1 that the adoption of the law stipulating that Constitutional Court decisions be ignored means mean the “beginning of legal secession” of the entity from the state.

“For the first time, we are facing a situation where a part of Bosnia & Herzegovina adopts legal acts that will start the legal secession from Bosnia & Herzegovina, because the monopoly of the state, which is completely normal since it exists, is being denied. If Republika Srpska goes down the path of adopting these laws, it will cause the deepest crisis since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which will require a reaction from the state, but also from the international community, which has never been done before,” he said.

He added that what is currently happening in the parliament of Republika Srpska is a lower level of government refusing to obey the state.

“It is not about the functionality of the court, it is about blocking the only currently functional institution at the state level that is capable of declaring any act of Republika Srpska unconstitutional, which Dodik … doesn’t like, because then he loses legitimacy and legality for his actions,” said Ademovic.

The state-level government, as well as the international community, have two options for responding to this crisis, and one of them implies the “use of force”, he warned. 

“I would like to point out that this is not only an attack on the constitutional and legal order of the state of Bosnia & Herzegovina but also an attack on the system called the Dayton Peace Agreement, which is backed by the international community that is very complex, but also strong. In a normal state, a state of emergency would be declared through the presidency, the army would be sent to the streets, and those persons who do not respect the state would be detained and prosecuted. This is a coup par excellence,” Ademovic said.