The Constituent Peoples’ Case and its Impact on the Multinational Nature of Bosnia and Herzegovina

This paper discusses the Constituent Peoples’ case delivered in 2000 by Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its impact on the multinational nature of the constitutional system. In the aftermath of the Bosnian war, the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement introduced a complex constitutional framework in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), blending consociationalism and federalism. The constitutional system emerging from the conflict reflected the divisions among groups rather than the multi-ethnic nature of the pre-existing state. It identified three “constituent peoples” (i.e., Bosniacs/Muslims, Serbs, and Croats) entitled to collective rights, while excluding the “Others” (i.e., national minorities). In this context, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina played a crucial role and delivered several important decisions that had a deep impact on the constitutional system. Among these, the so-called Constituent Peoples’ case (decision U-5/98 III, 1 July 2000) represents a landmark judgment as it imprinted a new dynamic and multinational dimension to the constitutional system, ending the principle of ethnic segregation of groups within the territory and recognizing the equality of the three constituent peoples across the entirety of the territory.