Twenty years of the constitutional building and functioning of the Republic of Srpska

The subject of this paper is the constitutional building of the Republic of Srpska since its establishment until today. Social circumstances, external and internal, in which the Republic of Srpska came into being were analysed. External circumstances refer to the process of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the intervention of the so-called international community, while internal ones refer to political disagreements between the three constitutive peoples concerning the form of state organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The process of the constitution of the Republic of Srpska did not arise from a hegemonic desire for domination over any of the constituent peoples, but from the need to maintain the identity of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The three equal peoples could not decide how Bosnia and Herzegovina should be organised - as a unitary, federal or confederal state. After several attempts, the Dayton formula for the organisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was found, and this was the result of a realistic compromise. The Constitution defines Bosnia and Herzegovina as a complex decentralised state with two entities and three equal peoples. As an entity with its own constitutional jurisdiction, the Republic of Srpska has developed as a stable and permanent highly-decentralized unit within Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Republic of Srpska bases its stability and durability on the three strong pillars: the will of the people - maintained plebiscite, the national law - legally adopted Constitution, and the international law - the Dayton Agreement. The building road of the Republic of Srpska is of legal character, which enables it to be modelled as a legal, democratic and pro-European state. A stable legal system and order were established. Ever since its establishment the National Assembly as a legislator has been continuously adopting legal acts, and it has adopted 2,235 decisions and 1,496 laws. All these acts are harmonised with the Constitution of the Republic of Srpska and the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also with the European legal heritage - acquis communautaire