Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit in Serbien

Abstract

Constitutional adjudication in Serbia can look back on a more than 55 year-long history. Through this history, however, the Constitutional Court of Serbia and its work have been subject to substantial changes. This not only concerns the constitutional and statutory provisions relating to the Court itself, but also the Serbian polity as a whole in which the Court fulfils its function. This article describes the development of constitutional adjudication in Serbia and analyses the current organisation and competences of the Constitutional Court of Serbia. In the course of this analysis, the existing provisions on the Constitutional Court of Serbia are compared to the corresponding legal rules on the Constitutional Courts of Austria and Germany, respectively. The Serbian Constitutional Court’s case law and its factual impact reveal, that a Constitutional Court’s authority significantly depends on the way political actors and a society as a whole uphold and ‘live’ a constitutional order.