ZEMALJSKI ŠTATUT U USTAVNOJ HISTORIJI BOSNE I HERCEGOVINE
THE PROVINCIAL CONSTITUTION IN THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Summary/Abstract: Bosnia and Herzegovina has been in existence as a geographical and political entity for more than ten centuries, during which the continuity of its standing in international law and its political and territorial integrity has been maintained. At its peak, the mediaeval Bosnian state was a class-based monarchy in which the powers of the ruler were quite heavily circumscribed, and often depended on the will of the leading feudal lords. The central authorities were the ruler (the ban or king) and the assembly, known as the stanak, the members of which were the feudal landlords. Matters of state, both internal and external, were discussed and resolved in the stanak – the selection and coronation of the ruler, the bestowal and confiscation of hereditaments, the abalienation of state territory, and foreign policy. In the 14th century, during the reign of ban Stjepan II Kotromanić and his heir King Tvrtko I, the Bosnian state enlarged its territory considerably, to include many lands and regions to the south, south-east and west of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was during the the final decade of Ottoman rule that Bosnia acquired its first written constitution. The introduction of the 1867 Constitution of the Bosnian Vilayet was the last in a series of administrative and political reforms for the Bosnian pashalik. Under the terms of the constitution, the Bosnian vilayet was subdivided into seven sanjaks or mutassarifliks: Sarajevo, Travnik, Bihać, Zvornik, Herzegovina and Novi Pazar. The governors of the sanjaks were given the title of mutassarif and the county prefects the title of kajmekam. An administrative council,the idare medžlis, was set up for each administrative instance, to act as an advisory body to the vali, mutassarif or kajmekam respectively. The constitution required the members of these councils to be reputable, reliable and influential people of all confessions, familiar with the circumstances and needs of the country. The principle of proportionality was not applied to the formation of the councils: half the seats went to Muslims, regardless of their total numbers in the vilayet or a given sanjak or county, with the other half divided among the representatives of other confessions. Certain reforms of the judiciary were also carried out, by reducing the previously general jurisdiction of the shariah courts to matters of Muslim civil status (marriage, family and inheritance) and waqf affairs. All other civil matters, whether pertaining to Muslims or others, along with criminal jurisdiction over the entire population, came within the jurisdiction of newly-established civil and mercantile courts, of which there were three instances. Even after the annexation crisis had been resolved diplomatically and internally, the question of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s incorporation as a state into the existing constitutional structure of the Dual Monarchy remained open.

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