International verification

Apart from the review of the constitutionality of certain norms and their compatibility with the Constitution of BiH, Article VI.3(c) of the BiH Constitution permits the lower instance courts to refer issues for the purpose of clarifying the existence and scope of rules of international public law.³⁵⁵⁵ The international verification also serves to avoid divergent judgments when the same rule, i.e., the norm is applied.

The term “general rules of international law” may include different forms of international common law which has universal validity, as well as general law principles, i.e., the principles which may be found in the same form within the legal systems of several states and which may be transferred to fall within the scope of international legal activities. Unlike the aforesaid, the remainder of international law, for instance international contract law, cannot be subject to review by the Constitutional Court, i.e., such an issue cannot be referred to the Constitutional Court of BiH. That is to say that the ordinary courts are tasked with the interpretation and application of the said laws, but their judgments may later reach the Constitutional Court of BiH after application of Article VI.3(b) of the BiH Constitution. The Constitutional Court of BiH does not review a general rule under the international law which is a subject of the issue referred, but it determines the existence and scope of that rule within the domestic legal system.