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Criminal Procedure Reform In Bosnia And Herzegovina: Between Organic Minimalism And Extrinsic Maximalism, Christopher Denicola

Christopher DeNicola

Before the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia in 1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina (“BiH”) employed a coherent, civil law approach to criminal justice. After internecine warfare engulfed the country in the 1990s, Bosnian courts routinely violated individuals’ rights. In response, the Office of the High Representative (“OHR”) imposed a new, more adversarial criminal procedure code on the country in 2003. This code closely resembled the mixed common and civil law procedures of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, it was inconsistent with BiH’s civil law tradition and its common law-oriented procedures bewildered local legal professionals, defendants, and victims. …