Council of Europe organised a roundtable discussion on the harmonisation of case law and judicial practice for senior judges in BiH, on 6 December 2021 in Sarajevo. The event was aimed at improving legal certainty and equality of citizens before the law. It was organized in co-operation with the BiH High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) and the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

“The following grounds are essential: sustainability and uniformity of judicial practice, which gives an important result – predictability; contemporary judicial management; zero tolerance for corruption; new communication policy (openness and public-oriented service are important to restore public trust); new structure and quality of judgments, especially its reasoning,” said Dragoljub Popović, former judge at European Court of Human Rights.

Following recommendations in the Venice Commission Opinion of 2012, in 2014 the HJPC established three harmonization panels, one for each of criminal, civil and administrative law areas. They consist of judges from the respective departments of the Court of BiH, the Supreme Court of the Federation of BiH, the Supreme Court of Republika Srpska, and the Appellate Court of Brčko District of BiH.

Council of Europe, under the auspices of the HJPC, has previously supported the work of the harmonisation panels. Conclusions and recommendations from the roundtable discussion will help drive the future work of the panels in addition to contributing to other initiatives to improve the harmonisation of the judicial practice in BiH.

The roundtable is organised under the project: “Initiative for Legal Certainty and Efficient Judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Phase II”, implemented by the Council of Europe thanks to the voluntary contribution of the Government of Norway.