BB: Militant democracy and a deeply divided society: Evidence from Bosnia and Herzegovina

This paper examines the application and efficacy of 'militant democracy' within the highly polarized and post-conflict landscape of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, militant democracy operates through a unique, layered architecture split between external international authority and domestic judicial review. This paper evaluates how this defensive framework is operationalized through three primary vectors: the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the Constitutional Court, and domestic political actors. 

Benjamin Nurkić is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina). He is also a managing editor of the Law & Governance South East Europe Blog. He also serves as an external constitutional expert for the Constitutional Committee of the House of Representatives in the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His research investigates constitutionalism in post-conflict societies, EU enlargement, ECtHR's jurisprudence, and environmental law in EU candidate states. Amongst others, he has published papers in Comparative Southeast European Studies and the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law.