{"id":11837,"date":"2024-12-15T22:13:03","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T21:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustavbih.ba\/preamble\/b-about-the-lines-respectively\/sovereignty-territorial-integrity-and-political-independence\/"},"modified":"2024-12-09T12:45:02","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T11:45:02","slug":"sovereignty-territorial-integrity-and-political-independence","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ustavbih.ba\/en\/preamble\/b-about-the-lines-respectively\/sovereignty-territorial-integrity-and-political-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"Sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCommitted to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with international law\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

CH\/98\/375 et al. <\/i>\u0110. Besarovi\u0107 et al<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

20050406<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

U 4\/04 S. Tihi\u0107 \u201cFlag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of FBiH and RS\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

20061118<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

U 5\/98-IV \u201cIzetbegovi\u0107 IV\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

20001231 OG of BiH<\/i>, No. 36\/00<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

U 7\/06 M. Pamuk \u201cBiH & Croatia: Social Rights Agreement\u201d<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

20060331<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

U 9\/00 \u201cState Border Service\u201c<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

20020130 OG of BiH<\/i>, No. 1\/02<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The obligation to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with international law includes also the rejection of possible separatist tendencies (or their continuation) even at the price of a long political and economic deadlock at the level of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n

According to the first sentence of Article I.1 of the BiH Constitution, Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the point of view of international law, is not a newly established legal personality but a State successor of the international personality of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with its borders internationally recognized at the moment of adoption of the Constitution.167 <\/sup><\/span>The State thus remained a Member State of the United Nations and maintained or could apply for membership in organisations within the United Nations system and other international organisations (Article I.1, second sentence thereof). Bosnia and Herzegovina is the very same state that it was initially as the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one of the five states \u2013 namely Slovenia, Croatia, the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia168 <\/sup><\/span>and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia \u2013 which were created by the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The United Nations recognised it as an independent State on 1 March 1992. Prior to this, the majority of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a referendum, voted for independence, autonomy and the sovereignty of the State. Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, lost the mark \u201cRepublic\u201d and got a new internal structure consisting of so-called Entities, namely the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska (Article I.1, first sentence thereof, in conjunction with Article I.3 of the BiH Constitution).<\/p>\n

According to Article I of the General Framework Agreement concluded in Dayton, the Republic of Croatia and the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia explicitly undertook to respect \u2013 in addition to other international obligations, such as the conduct of relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with the principles set forth in the United Nations Charter, as well as the 1975 Helsinki Final Act169 <\/sup><\/span>\u2013 the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In international law, this is something that goes<\/p>\n

without saying. It is only the prehistory of centrifugal conflict that can give an explanation as to why the obligation to respect sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of a State, which is an implicit international obligation, is also formulated as a legal-constitutional obligation. Calling into question these inter-state obligations would not only create an external threat but also an internal threat, which was confirmed and manifested again in the years following the armed conflict. So, in addition to line 6 of the Preamble, Article III.2(a) of the BiH Constitution entitles the Entities to \u201cestablish special parallel relationships\u201d with neighbouring states consistent with the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, according to Article VI.3(a), line 3, may be examined objectively by the Constitutional Court. Moreover, according to Article III.5 of the BiH Constitution, the State of BiH may assume responsibilities other than those provided for by Article III.1 if they are necessary to preserve the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and international personality of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The legislature used this, for example, when adopting the Law on the State Border Service.170 <\/sup><\/span>Therefore, the Entities are subject to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina and they themselves do not have the legal capacity of a State.171 <\/sup><\/span>Finally, in Article V.5(a) of the BiH Constitution, the architect-Framer of the Constitution, once again, precisely stipulated the obligation for the armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e., those of the Federation and the Republika Srpska, to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina; therefore, they should also act in accordance with the aforementioned principles.172 <\/sup><\/span>The fact that common armed forces have central significance encouraged the Framer of the Constitution to adopt, following difficult and long negotiations, the Law on Defence of BiH in 2003.173<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cCommitted to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with international law\u201d CH\/98\/375 et al. \u0110. Besarovi\u0107 et al. 20050406 U 4\/04 S. Tihi\u0107 \u201cFlag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of FBiH and RS\u201d 20061118 U 5\/98-IV \u201cIzetbegovi\u0107 IV\u201d 20001231 OG of BiH, No. 36\/00 U 7\/06 M. Pamuk … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":11824,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11837","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nSovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence - Commentary on BiH Constitution<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ustavbih.ba\/en\/preamble\/b-about-the-lines-respectively\/sovereignty-territorial-integrity-and-political-independence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence - Commentary on BiH Constitution\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cCommitted to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with international law\u201d CH\/98\/375 et al. \u0110. 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