iii. Digression: Damages for an unreasonable length of proceedings

In the event of a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time, the Constitutional Court shall guarantee pecuniary compensation. The value of damages in “ordinary” cases, i.e., proceedings, shall amount to BAM 150 for each year of unjustified delays in the proceedings, i.e., double the amount in the proceedings identified by law as “urgent”.¹²⁹⁶ In establishing the value of damages, the BiH Constitutional Court was guided by the case law of the ECHR in the Case Apicella v. Italy,¹²⁹⁷ which, then again, was guided by the gross domestic product of the country concerned. Nevertheless, a priority legal remedy in cases of unreasonable length of proceedings is the urgent completion of the proceedings. For this very reason, the damages before the Constitutional Court for the violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time are symbolic in nature.¹²⁹⁸ However, it is a justified question whether symbolic damages may justify and fulfil the obligation on the part of the State to award “fair damages” or the so-called redress to “a victim” of a violation of human rights, in order for the victim not to have that status any longer. The BiH Constitutional Court stopped using the term “symbolic damages” in 2009, although no changes whatsoever took place when it comes to the computation of the amount of damages.¹²⁹⁹

On the other hand, the Human Rights Chamber for BiH and the Human Rights Commission within the BiH Constitutional Court would usually award higher damages, as both institutions, in addition to the criteria that the Constitutional Court considered in the Case No. AP 938/04, also, considered additional criteria in order to award a fair amount in damages. Accordingly, the respective courts used to award between BAM 343 and 515 in “ordinary” cases, and BAM 687 in “urgent” cases.¹³⁰⁰