Formal requirements under Article 19 et seq. of the Rules of the BiH Constitutional Court

Besides the authorisation to file a request under Article VI.3(a) of the BiH Constitution, the Rules of the Constitutional Court provide for further requirements to take a decision in the abstract control (review) of constitutionality. According to Article 19 of the Rules of BiH the Constitutional Court, a request for institution of proceedings shall contain the title of the challenged act with the name and number of the official gazette in which it was published; the provisions of the Constitution deemed to have been violated; the statements, facts and evidence on which the request is founded; and the signature of an authorised person or applicant. In the event that a request is incomplete or it does not contain the information necessary for the conduct of the proceedings, the Constitutional Court shall request that the applicant make the necessary corrections within a specified time limit not exceeding 30 days. If the applicant fails to make the necessary corrections within the given time limit, the request shall be rejected (Article 20, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Rules of the BiH Constitutional Court).

As indicated above, Article 19, paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Rules of the BiH Constitutional Court provide that the applicant must state the provisions of the Constitution deemed to have been violated. However, the Constitutional Court does not interpret this requirement too strictly.²⁹¹⁵ The statement of constitutional provisions does not prevent the Constitutional Court from taking into account other provisions of the Constitution as a measure of control (review) of constitutionality, since the legal assessment of the case rests on the discretion of the Constitutional Court. It is indispensable for the constitutional norm in question to be in a real connection with a particular case.²⁹¹⁶