REPUBLIC OF SERBIA CONSTITUTION OF 2006 – A CRITICAL REVIEW
REPUBLIC OF SERBIA CONSTITUTION OF 2006 – A CRITICAL REVIEW

Summary/Abstract: Even though the new Constitution in Serbia had been under way for a long time, the draft Constitution that became the Constitution itself was drawn up in haste and unexpectedly, and the procedure of the adoption thereof was the fastest possible one. For all that, no formal legal breaches of the constitution adoption procedure, as specified by the 1990 Constitution, took place, but the objection that the new Constitution was part of the political compromise of the three largest parliamentary political parties, while the broader political and the entire professional community had been excluded, can hardly be ignored. There were two main reasons for such great haste. One was to pre-empt the decision, potentially adverse for Serbia, of the Security Council on Kosmet1 status, which has been under international military and civil administration since 1999, in a way that the Constitution would state that Kosmet is „within the sovereign country of Serbia“. Since the constitution is to be endorsed at the referendum by a majority of the total number of voters in the Republic of Serbia, this attitude would have the protection of the highest level of legitimacy. The other reason for the „lightning“ quickness of the adoption of the Constitution is that Serbia, having become an independent and sovereign country after the secession of Montenegro from the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, which was, apparently, not expected to happen, should be given an appropriate constitution, which would express her new „country status“.

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