UTICAJ PANDEMIJE COVID-19 NA DUŽINU TRAJANJA PARNIČNIH POSTUPAKA U BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI
THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON THE DURATION OF LITIGATION PROCEEDINGS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Summary/Abstract: Procedural laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulate that first-instance litigation proceedings should end within six months. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the executive branch in BiH has adopted a number of orders and regulations, all to maintain and improve the health situation. To this end, the Law on Deadlines and Procedures in Legal Proceedings during the state of the accident on the territory of the FBiH was adopted, which temporarily amended the provisions on deadlines and procedures prescribed by the laws on civil procedure in BiH. In addition, the parties and their powers of attorney, who were very often in the role of the defendants, behaving unconscionably, used various means at the court to issue a stay of the hearing. Such conduct by the parties, which, to the greatest extent, constituted an abuse of procedural authorizations, led to a longer duration of proceedings. Hearings before the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina were not held online, because the provisions of the procedural laws do not leave the possibility for hearings to be held differently, except for the classic one – for the parties to go to court and present facts and evidence. No such regulation has even been adopted due to the pandemic. For this reason, the paper will present the civil proceedings at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the consequences of COVID-19 that objectively prevented the courts from acting, including in urgent matters, the abuse of the procedural authorizations of the parties, and the (in)possibility of holding hearings remotely. We will also point out the legal solutions adopted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in BiH, and give an overview of parallel solutions.

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