Constitutional Court

KI147/20, KI148/20, KI149/20, KI150/20, KI151/20 and KI152/20, Applicant, Nezir Neziri and 5 others, Constitutional review of 6 decisions of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kosovo, rendered between 10 December 2019 and 13 July 2020

KI147/20, KI148/20, KI149/20, KI150/20, KI151/20 and KI152/20, Resolution on Inadmissibility of 1 January 2021, published on 01 February 2021

Keywords: Individual referral, joint referral, manifestly ill-founded referral, war damage 

The Applicants had filed a lawsuit in the Basic Court against the Government of the Republic of Serbia, for compensation of material and non-material damage caused to them during the war.

The regular courts were declared incompetent to decide the case and, finally, the Supreme Court, referring to the relevant provisions of the Law on Contested Procedure, reasoned that in these cases the norms of international law apply, for which disputes the domestic courts are not competent to decide, but competent in this legal matter is the court in which territory the seat of the Government of the Republic of Serbia is located.

The Applicants alleged before the Constitutional Court that their rights under the Constitution, namely Articles 21, 22, 53 and 54 and Article 6 of the ECHR have been violated. The Applicants in their Referral, in essence raised three categories of allegations, namely: (i) the application of the principle “per loci” [ratione loci]; (ii) the obligation for the application of international human rights standards; as well as (iii) their right to judicial protection of rights and the right of access to justice.

The Constitutional Court, after examining the allegations of the Applicants, reasoned that the findings of the regular courts were reached after a detailed examination of all the arguments and interpretations presented by the Applicants and they were given the opportunity to present at all stages of the proceedings the arguments and legal interpretations they consider relevant to their cases. The Constitutional Court also recalled the case law of the ECtHR in some cases where the procedural barriers imposed by the principle of sovereign immunity of states were emphasized, in relation to the court proceedings that may be conducted against one state in the domestic courts of another state. The Court, also, considered it important to reiterate the fact that the regular courts of Kosovo did not adjudicate on the right of the Applicants to seek compensation for damage, but only in relation to the territorial jurisdiction of the courts of Kosovo to conduct the proceedings against another state.

Therefore, the Constitutional Court found that the  Referrals are manifestly ill-founded on constitutional basis, and are therefore inadmissible, as established in Article 47, 48 and 50 of the Law and Rule 39 (2) and 59 (2) of the Rules of Procedure.