Neformalne promene Ustava Republike Srbije – između nužnosti, evolucije i zloupotrebe
Informal change of the Serbian Constitution – between necessities, evolution and abuse

Author(s): Savo Manojlović
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law, Public Law, Evaluation research
Published by: Fondacija Centar za javno pravo
Keywords: Public law; Constitution; Republic of Serbia; changes; formal; informal; practices; abuse;
Summary/Abstract: Every constitution has formal and informal life. Amendments are the instrument for formal change. On the other hand, constitutional customs and practices, Constitutional court reviews and judicial practices can de facto change a constitution. Informal change is the change in which the main institutions understand the meaning of a Constitution over a period of time. According to the constitutional text, those changes can be secundum constitutionem, praeter constitutionem and contra constitutionem. Those changes also can be a consequence of necessities, a chance for constitutional evolution or a product of abuse. In this paper, the author analyzes the examples of these three types of informal change. A missed opportunity for an evolutionary change was the incompatibility of the functions of president of the state and president of political party. Constitutional court decisions which established the principle of free parliamentary mandate dismissed constitutional provisions, because that was the only way for reestablishing one of the basic principles of modern constitutionalism. At the end, the Constitutional law which was the base for the illegal reelection of all judges was a typical example of abuse of informal change and constitutional deception.

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