Босанскохерцеговачки федерализам у светлости права на рецесију
Federalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Light of the Right of Secession

Author(s): Darko Simović
Subject(s): Constitutional Law, Governance
Published by: Правни факултет Универзитета у Источном Сарајеву
Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina;Dayton Peace Agreement;Federalism;Secession;
Summary/Abstract: Although the right to secession cannot be denied the element of democracy because it is founded on the right of people to self-determination, ac¬cording to the dominant thought in the theory of federalism, this right is in¬consistent with the authentic federal system. Despite such explicit theoretical viewpoints, comparative practice points to certain examples of federations which have proclaimed with their constitutions the possibility of federal units to unilaterally withdraw from a federation. Undoubtedly, the right to unilateral withdrawal of federal units significantly contradicts the legal nature of a federation which does not represent a mechanical formation of constitutive units bound by agreement, which make it up. However, the actual constitutionalization of the right to secession, as indicated by comparative law, is not an obstacle for normal functioning of federal systems. On the other hand, there are multiple examples of those federations which did not foresee the right to secession, but had in the meantime ceased to exist. Past experiences point to the fact that the survival of a federation is least of all a legal matter, but primarily a factual issue dealing with the relations between the centripetal and centrifugal powers. In that context, the federalism of Bosnia and Herzegovina was analyzed with the aim of establishing the effectiveness of the Constitution that was the result of the Dayton Peace Accords.

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