EVROPSKA POVELJA O LOKALNOJ SAMOUPRAVI I NJENA PRIMJENA U BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI

Mujakić Muhamed (Direktor Pravnog instituta u Bosni i Hercegovini, Sarajevo),

Local self-government is an undeniable value and a and a component of every modern and democratic political system. The most important legal document regulating this matter is the European Charter on local self- government which was ratified by Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1994. Local self- government is often defined as a right and capability of the local self-government units to regulate and manage certain public affairs on its own responsibility and in the best interest of local population. Contrary to the state administration, with which the issues of local self- government are often compared and which is characterized by hyerarchical relations and centralization, main characteristics of local self-government are authonomy and independence, decentralization and democratization. Behind the acts of public (state) administration are obligations and compulsion, behind the acts of local self-government there is often freewillingness. The laws which regulate local self-government exist on cantonal and entity, but rather not on the state level.

Кључне речи: Local self-governance, European Charter on local self-governance, municipality, Bosnia and Herzegovina