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KATEŘINA UHLÍŘOVÁ CYIL 5 ȍ2014Ȏ
and impartial justice for the victims of an armed conflict. 9 Due to the importance of
the role of international law in achieving these goals, the paper discusses the process of
empowering domestic institutions to apply international law.10
The paper starts by looking at the involvement of the international community in
the conclusion of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA), of which the new Constitution
is an inherent part. The first part examines the complicated state structure of BiH
established by the DPA, the special legal nature of the Constitution, the position
of international law in the Constitution and some of the challenges on the road
towards a full-fledged democracy, including problems with the discriminatory nature
of some of the constitutional provisions. The first part serves also as an explanation
of the complex environment in which the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of BiH
(WCC) has to operate.
The second part focuses on the WCC, which deals with atrocities committed
during the 1992-1995 armed conflict. The establishment of the WCC can be viewed
as another important and specific moment in the international community’s rule
of law efforts in BiH. The second part introduces the WCC, its applicable law, and
its special relationship with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY).
The concluding part summarizes how successful the international community
was in achieving the ends that the rule of law is intended to serve. The concluding
remarks are influenced by the fact that most international personnel have now left
the WCC, leaving it in the hands of the local population only.
of the rule of law and various goals it seeks to achieve, see K. Pistor, Advancing the Rule of Law:
Report on the International Rule of Law Symposium Convened by the American Bar Association
November 9-10 2005, 25(1) Berkeley Journal of International Law, available at
bjil/docs/BJIL25.1_Pistor.pdf (visited 24 March 2014). For a suggestion to shift our attention from
strict division between domestic and international rule of law to ‘internationalized’ rule of law see A.
Nollkaemper, The Internationalized Rule of Law, 1 Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, pp. 74-78 (2009).
9 For the discussion of the rule of law in the context of European Convention on Human Rights, see P.
Šturma, Vláda práva podle Evropské úmluvy o lidských právech, Právník č. 5 (1993).
10 For a deeper analysis of the actual application of international law by the WCC, see K. Uhlířová,
supra note 1. See also S. Popovic, Prosecution of War Crimes in Bosnian Cantonal and District
Courts: the Role of the Rule of Law, in E. Kristjánsdóttir, A. Nollkaemper, C. Ryngaert, (eds.), supra
note 1, pp. 221-237. The post-conflict situation in BiH fits well into the general discussion about the
internationalized rule of law. If ‘[t]he internationalized rule of law is characterized by the fact that
international law and international institutions can fill rule of law gaps at the domestic law ...’, then
a strong involvement of international community in the whole legal sector of BiH provides a telling
example. Nollkaemper, supra note 8, p. 76.