VASILJEVIĆ: THE CONCEPT OF PROPERTY CANNOT BE TRANSFORMED INTO A PUBLIC-LAW INSTITUTE

BANJA LUKA, November 29 /SRNA/ - The concept of property cannot be transformed into any kind of public-law institute, nor does the Constitution of BiH provide such a basis, said Zoran Vasiljević, professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Banja Luka.

"Property is a broader concept than the right of ownership, which is just one form of real rights. The Constitution of BiH explicitly places the regulation of private-law matters within the competence of the entities, and this is not among the ten competencies assigned to the level of BiH," Vasiljević stated. According to him, only with the consent of the entities can any of these competencies be transferred to the level of BiH, and without such consent, "there is simply nothing to discuss." Vasiljević explained that property represents a set of proprietary rights consisting of both obligations and real rights. "Property is purely a private-law institute and cannot be transformed into a public-law institute in the manner in which the BiH Constitutional Court qualified it in 2011," Vasiljević told SRNA. He added that the Constitutional Court of BiH at that time even mentioned ownership rights, although property as a concept cannot be equated with ownership rights, as it is a much broader category. The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH will consider the Draft Law on State Property under regular procedure, since the November 27 session did not produce an entity majority to allow discussion under urgent or expedited procedure. The proposers of the law are MPs Jasmin Emrić, Šemsudin Mehmedović, Aida Baručija, and Elvis Hodžić. SNSD MP Nebojša Radmanović said that an issue of such magnitude requires a political agreement, noting that political actors in BiH have been unable to reach consensus on this matter for 30 years.