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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 07/04
Rule of Law in Public Administration: Confusion and Discrimination in a Post-Communist Bureaucracy
December 15, 1999
Abstract
To date, little attention has been paid to the role public administration plays in enforcing or violating the human rights and civil liberties of Bosnia and Herzegovina's citizens. Instead, much effort is concentrated on reforming the court system. Yet, the justice system in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) comprises far more than the court system. It also consists of "administrative justice," where small-scale rulings by seemingly minor municipal and cantonal officials in a variety of public administrative organs, exercise a huge influence on the lives and legal rights of ordinary citizens. Many of these rulings prevent citizens from exercising their legal rights and gaining access to due process of law.
In BiH relatively few people come into contact with a court of law. In contrast, the system of public administration sees a constant flow of individuals through its various layers. Whether obtaining birth certificates or identity papers, registering a car, completing property documentation, obtaining a telephone line, or attempting to acquire the numerous permits and certificates required by the complex and often non-transparent BiH administrative system, virtually all BiH citizens queue in front of municipal and cantonal officials at some point. It is there that the citizenry and government meet, and it is there that the vast majority of legal abuses occur, as government officials - protected by a wall of seemingly incomprehensible laws and regulations - intimidate ordinary people.
