Despite the court ruling, the Ministry of Justice of BiH continues to refuse to deliver the draft Law on the Court of BiH.

Sarajevo, 1. December 2025. years – The Ministry of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina refused to publish the Draft Law on the Court of BiH even after a court ruling in favor of Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH). The draft of this law, which has been in the making for several years, was requested as early as March last year, after transitioning from the version of the Law on Courts of BiH to the Law on the Court of BiH, which has repeatedly been on the agenda of the Council of Ministers without informing the public about its content. Although the ruling of the Court of BiH indicates that one of the most important laws to be adopted in the process of European integration should have been published, the Ministry of Justice decided to ignore the ruling, explaining that the draft law is an “internal text.” Furthermore, at tomorrow’s session of the Council of Ministers, this law will be reconsidered, but now the amendments to the Law on the Court of BiH are in question, not the draft of a new law, and the public is once again deprived of information about the content of the proposed amendments.

At the end of October, the Court of BiH issued a ruling on the lawsuit by TI BiH, which clearly states that there is undoubtedly public interest in this case and that “in democratic societies, the procedures for adopting general legal acts are generally public so that the public, through its criticisms, can influence the drafting of future laws, which the legislator or proposer may or may not accept.”

Given that this law is being adopted in the process of European integration and represents one of the conditions that BiH must fulfill to hold the first intergovernmental conference, it should be emphasized that the Court of BiH’s ruling clearly highlights the need to protect the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court believes that the Ministry did not conduct a public interest test to justify the non-disclosure of the requested information. Nevertheless, despite the clear instructions from the court, the Ministry of Justice of BiH again refused access to the draft law, arguing that providing the draft would seriously undermine the completion of its harmonization and prevent the quality and coordinated preparation of the draft.

“In this way, incorrect interpretations of the draft’s content could be triggered, as well as unfounded public debates on solutions that are not final, creating pressure on the institutions involved in the harmonization process… Furthermore, providing the draft law at this stage could negatively impact the freedom of expression and exchange of opinions among the entities involved in its creation, as their proposals could be exposed to external pressure and interpretations,” states the Ministry’s decision.

TI BiH reminds that in this case, the draft law was not published on the eConsultations portal, the regulation could not be commented on, and there were only speculations regarding its content, which is why the Ministry was requested to provide the draft that was, at that time and in the subsequent period, several times placed and then removed from the agenda of the Council of Ministers.

We also note that the public in BiH has long witnessed non-transparent processes in the adoption of the most important laws on the European path. The latest example is the adoption of the Draft Law on the HJPC, which was on the agenda of the Council of Ministers’ session tomorrow before the consultations were completed. This example, as well as the mere concealment of the Draft Law on the Court of BiH, is a clear indicator that the public is systematically excluded in the adoption of the most important laws. TI BiH has previously proposed and initiated initiatives to introduce the obligation to publish materials for the sessions of the Council of Ministers, especially when it comes to laws directly related to the process of European integration, where transparency of all decision-making stages should exist—from working groups for law preparation, public consultations, reports on the content of public consultations, to the publication of the drafts themselves before their adoption.

Press-rls_01.12.2025.