On the constitutional identity of the Republic of Srpska

Mikić, Vladimir (2025) On the constitutional identity of the Republic of Srpska. Srpska politička misao, 92 (4). pp. 51-73. ISSN 0354-5989

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Abstract

This paper is dedicated to determining which components make up the constitutional identity of the Republika Srpska (hereinafter: the RS). The basic theoretical and methodological approach is based on the study of the text of the 1992 Constitution of the RS (hereinafter: the CRS), which has had an unusually long life, but whose total revision has recently been officially announced. The draft Constitution was published on May 25, 2025, on the website of the National Assembly of the RS (hereinafter: NARS). The aim of the research is to attempt to identify the elements of the constitutional identity of the Republic of Srpska, in accordance with the instructions of scholars regarding what the notion of constitutional identity represents. The paper identifies certain comparative deficiencies in the authenticity of structure and content from which the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the Dayton Constitution) and the Constitution of the RS suffer. Based on the analysis of the CRS, the texts of relevant constitutional documents of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: BH) and its formal and informal quasi-state predecessors, and the 1990 Constitution of the Republic of Serbia (the 1990 Constitution of Serbia), it is concluded that there are two key elements of the constitutional identity of the RS. These are the Serb national foundation of the RS and of its constitutional order, as well as the highly positioned autonomous status of the RS as one of the two constitutional entities of BH. The paper establishes that less important, but obviously present, additional components of the constitutional identity of RS are its unitary order and the extinguished institutional role of its President of the Republic within the constitutional framework of the RS.

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