BiH's Const. Court Scraps Serb Entity’s Disputed Laws

Court strikes down laws adopted by the Republika Srpska Assembly in reaction to a verdict convicting the entity’s president, Milorad Dodik, of undermining 'state authority over part of its territory'.

Azem Kurtic, May 29, 2025

Judges at Bosnia’s highest court. Photo: Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday suspended all laws adopted by the assembly of the country’s Serb-led Republika Srpska entity in response to a first-instance verdict against the entity’s president, Milorad Dodik.

Among them is the so-called “foreign agents” law, which imposed reporting obligations, inspections and possible bans on NGOs and independent media. The court said the law mirrors Russian legislation and violates rights to freedom of association.

The court also ruled that the Law on a Special Register and Public Disclosure of Non-Profit Organisations is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. “It does not meet a ‘pressing social need’ and is not necessary in a democratic society,” the ruling noted.

The court also struck down entity laws excluding state authority over key areas such as justice and security, saying they undermine Bosnia’s sovereignty.

In February, the entity’s National Assembly voted to ban Bosnia’s state-level court and prosecutor’s office, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council and the State Investigation and Protection agency, SIPA, from exercising jurisdiction in the entity. Dodik enforced the laws through a presidential decree in early March.

Following this, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia opened a new investigation into “an attack on the constitutional order” and issued an arrest warrant for President Dodik, Republika Srpska Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic, and the speaker of the Republika Srpska assembly, Nenad Stevandic, who failed to answer two summons for questioning.

“They effectively abolish state authority over part of its territory,” the court noted of the laws.

Amendments to the entity’s criminal code were also annulled for lacking legal clarity and for subordinating state institutions to entity laws.

All the laws were passed in February 2025 after Dodik was sentenced in a first-instance verdict to one year in prison plus a six-year ban on being President of Republika Srpska for defying the decisions of the High Representative, the international official overseeing Bosnia’s 1995 peace agreement.

Prior to the court’s final ruling, all the laws were provisionally suspended in March. Their implementation has caused Bosnia’s biggest political crisis since the end of 1992-95 war.

Copyright BIRN 2007