Center for Social Research Analitika, in cooperation with Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Group for Legal and Political Studies from Kosovo and CRPM – Center for Research and Policy Making from Macedonia, is implementing the project “Courts as Policy-Makers?: Examining the Role of Constitutional Courts as Agents of Change in the Western Balkans”. The project is funded by the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP).
Short project description: This research project investigates the contribution of constitutional courts to democratic transition and consolidation in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, focusing on examining the capacity, positioning, legitimacy and overall performance of constitutional courts in resolving important political and social issues in four transitional countries of the Western Balkans.
The expected results are as follows: publication of six research/working papers, publication of at least two academic papers in peer-reviewed journals, organization of the final academic workshop which will focus on the research results, and organization of two project workshops.
Project Objectives: The main goal of the research project is to shed light on the role and performance of constitutional courts in resolving important political and social questions in BiH, Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia, as well as to analyze transitional jurisprudence as “a distinct paradigmatic form of law responsive to and constructive of the extraordinary circumstances of periods of substantial political change…” (Ruti Teitel, 2005).
Specific objectives of the project are: examining competences, legitimacy and efficiency of constitutional courts in resolving important transitional disputes; identifying possible behavioral patterns of constitutional courts at different stages of democratic consolidation; and identifying key factors that determine the overall role of constitutional courts in democratic transition in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.
Project duration: August 2014 – October 2015
Donor: Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP)
About the RRPP: Regional Research Promotion Programme (RRPP) is aimed at fostering and promoting social science research in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia). The RRPP is coordinated and operated by the Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe (IICEE) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). The programme is fully funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
More information about the RRPP program is available at http://www.rrpp-westernbalkans.net/en/about.html.
