In cooperation with Prime minister’s Legal Office, EUKOJUST organized on Tuesday, 13 September 2022, a workshop about the Constitutional Analysis on ‘Legal Cleaning’.
“Legal Cleaning” means the removal of any existing or persisting ambiguities with regard to the applicable law in Kosovo.
The relatively frequent and drastic changes of authority over the past decades in Kosovo have resulted in different sets of applicable legislation, in turn creating confusion and incoherent application of laws by courts and other public institutions.
The end result of this activity is a comprehensive constitutional analysis on the applicable legislation in force in Kosovo according to the Constitution of Kosovo and UNMIK Regulation 1999/24. The first draft of the analysis was discussed today with relevant stakeholders. All the today’s presented inputs will be reflected in the final version of the draft. The event also served as an awareness raising event, where the issues identified by the report will be discussed with relevant stakeholders, such as judges, legal advisors from the AoK and Constitutional Court and legal officers from the LO-OPM and the Ministry of Justice.
It should be noted that despite the fundamental change being created with the adoption and entry into force of the Constitution of Kosovo in June 2008 and its law-making provisions—including on the continuity of international agreements and applicable legislation—there has nonetheless been no subsequent legal act that would formally repeal or replace UNMIK Regulation No. 1999/24 on the Law Applicable in Kosovo.
After the adoption of Kosovo’s Constitution in 2008, an entirely new order was established, including the types of sources and hierarchy of norms. Among others, it contained a transitional provision, providing for the continued application of legislation that was applicable on the date of the entry into force of the Constitution to the extent this legislation is in conformity with the Constitution “until repealed, superseded or amended”.
In any event, although the Constitution does not provide any more for the promulgation of UNMIK Regulations as such, it obviously does not automatically repeal them or invalidate their continuity, at least not until they are repealed, superseded or amended by acts recognized in the Constitution.
EUKOJUST experts took note of the comments, suggestions and proposals for addressing the issues discussed during the Workshop and will reflect them into the final Constitutional Analysis on Applicable Law in Kosovo, which will be shared with all the relevant stakeholders.
