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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 07/04
Courting Disaster: The Misrule of Law in Bosnia & Herzegovina
March 25, 2002
Abstract
The law does not yet rule in Bosnia & Herzegovina. What prevail instead are nationally defined politics, inconsistency in the application of law, corrupt and incompetent courts, a fragmented judicial space, halfbaked or half-implemented reforms, and sheer negligence. Bosnia is, in short, a land where respect for and confidence in the law and its defenders is weak.
Bosnians are unequal before the law, and they know it. Exercise of the legal rights to repossess property or to reclaim a job too often depends on an individual's national identity Ð or that of the judge before whom she or he appears. Even when citizens do get justice in the courts, the chances of having decisions enforced can be slim, since the execution of court orders is often prolonged unlawfully or hedged in arbitrary conditions. Obtaining justice is also subject to geographical chance. War crimes in one entity or canton are still hailed as acts of heroism in another.
