Procedure of reviewing the constitutionality of norms

If the Constitutional Court, in the proceedings of constitutionality review, concludes that some challenged act is entirely or partially unconstitutional or is in contravention of the ECHR or in violation of some other law of Bosnia and Herzegovina,³⁶⁹¹ the authority that issued that legal act may be given a time-limit not exceeding 6 months to harmonise the challenged act (Article 63, paragraph 4 of the applicable Rules of the Constitutional Court of BiH). If this order is not complied with within the specified time-limit, the Constitutional Court shall declare the act null and void in its separate decision (paragraph 5). The act will become ineffective on the day of publication of the decision in the Official Gazette (paragraph 6). In the proceedings on Case No. U 1/99, for the first time the Constitutional Court used the possibility to order a time-limit for enforcement of the decision (U 1/99-1). Five months later, the Court had to declare the related provisions null and void since the legislature had failed to take any action in that regard (U 1/99-2).