The Latest Proposal of the Law on State Property of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Between Political Will and Constitutional Impossibility

Abstract

In November 2025, four members of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as authorized proposers, submitted to the House of Representatives a Proposal of the Law on State Property for consideration under urgent procedure, as it was considered in their opinion “a draft law of a high degree of urgency.” The proposal was not adopted and was subsequently, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives, referred to regular legislative procedure. It should be emphasised that this was not the first attempt to resolve this extremely important issue. By a Decision of the Council of Ministers of BiH in December 2004, a State Property Commission had been established, tasked with drafting criteria for determining which property belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina and which belongs to the entities and the Brčko District of BiH. Nevertheless, this commission failed to produce any results from 2004 to 2025. Besides this, the Constitutional Court of BiH also significantly engaged in resolving this issue through its decisions. In order to achieve the goals, the activities of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) for BiH need reconsideration.