I know, the title isn’t the best – it needs some explaining. It’s not just that a “state governed by law” and the “rule of law” are not the same thing – a state governed by law means that laws are respected, while the rule of law means that those laws are actually good. That’s why both appear in the title. The Serbs in parentheses also need explaining. One might think that the phrases “state governed by law” and “rule of law” are the same thing everywhere and to everyone, but the parentheses are meant to draw attention to the fact that, for Serbs, they represent something else.
Here are two examples.
The first, simpler one, comes from one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over the past few months, Savo Minić, the prime minister of one of those entities, Republika Srpska, has resigned twice. And both times, he announced that he would again become prime minister. He resigned in order to remove any doubt about the legality of the decision appointing him head of government. The previous two decisions had been illegal because they were made by people who had no right to make them.
The first time, Minić received the mandate to form a new government from Milorad Dodik, who gave it to him after a court had already banned him from engaging in politics for the next six years. So the new prime minister-designate was, in fact, appointed illegally, which is why he had to resign. After he resigned, the acting president of Republika Srpska gave Minić the mandate again. Only she, too, had no right to do so. And so Minić is now resigning again. And as he resigns, he says: I will once more be the new prime minister-designate.
A well-meaning reader might say: the law must be respected, there is nothing controversial in this sequence of resignations and reappointments of the same person. A state governed by law in action, right? No. A true state governed by law would have to show how it even came to pass that someone violated the law the first and the second time. Moreover, it would have to show that it was not only Dodik and his acting president who broke the law – the prime minister-designate also broke it by accepting the mandate.
Which again means that all of them should bear consequences, and the prime minister-designate, given his readiness to violate the law, has at the very least disqualified himself as someone with the legitimacy to form a government. But none of that happened. Instead, they will have their way, even if it means bending the law as many times as necessary to align it with their will. That is what a “state governed by law” looks like in the interpretation of the authorities in one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entities.
If this example is somewhat amusing, the second is almost tragic. I assume you have followed the drama surrounding the status of educational and healthcare institutions in Kosovo, meaning universities and hospitals that are still part of Serbia’s education and healthcare systems. The Assembly of Kosovo adopted a law on foreigners. The law states that anyone in Kosovo who does not have Kosovo documents is considered a foreigner. And foreigners must regulate their stay in Kosovo, as befits foreigners.
The problem is that a number of Serbs in northern Kosovo do not have Kosovo documents. Also, a number of people from Serbia study at the University of Priština (in Kosovska Mitrovica) without having regulated their stay in accordance with the (new) law. All in all, this law on foreigners would mean either the closure or relocation of the University of Priština, as well as numerous problems for the hospitals. These are the last remaining institutions of Serbia in northern Kosovo.
You will have watched and read about this, I am sure, seen the noise and anger of the administration here over the decisions of the administration there. And then came great relief. The authorities in Kosovo gave a three-month deadline for everyone living in Kosovo without Kosovo documents to obtain them. For students from Serbia, temporary residence permits of one year will be granted, meaning that they will be treated as if they are studying in a foreign country, even though they are studying at a university within Serbia’s education system.
Of course, all of this was presented as a great success, almost a victory, for the Serbian administration. But it is not so. The solution offered by Kosovo’s authorities can be understood within the framework of their own legislation. This presents Kosovo as a state governed by law. The emphasis here is on “state”. The attempt by the administration here to present this “solution” as a success borders on the absurd. This is the same administration that operates under the slogan “no surrender.”
Instead of viewing it as a success, this new “solution”, and the fact that the authorities here accepted it, should be seen as yet another in a series of small acknowledgments that Kosovo is a state, and that Serbia has for some time no longer regarded the Serbs living there as its own citizens.
In the example from Republika Srpska, the idea of a state governed by law is turned into a mockery in order to supposedly demonstrate statehood. In the example from Kosovo, another state’s legal order is respected, thereby demonstrating a relinquishing of one’s own state, its laws, and even its constitution. And to avoid confusion – this is how it looks from the perspective of the domestic administration. A reasonable and realistic reader has long known that Kosovo is a state independent of Serbia. In the ongoing posturing and deception that it is not, the highest price is paid by the Serbs in Kosovo.
The point is that in both cases, a state governed by law is seen merely as a formal construct. There is no trace of the rule of law. Which means that, in the title, “rule of law” should actually have been placed in parentheses as well, simply because it does not exist. At least not under the current regime in Serbia.
“But,” the reader will say, “both examples are taken from outside Serbia. What does that have to do with Serbia?” Everything and nothing, would be my answer.
The legal chaos in one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entities, as well as the struggle of Serbs in Kosovo to finally resolve their status and begin to live somewhat normal and decent lives, are consequences of the Serbian administration’s dissatisfaction with the country’s existing borders. It is more interested in the image of the state than in the state itself. And that image includes Kosovo and one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entities. But because of that image, we have lost even this one state we actually have and, in addition, caused harm to people outside the borders of Serbia.
Thus it becomes clear that the entire title should be placed in parentheses, because there is neither a state nor the rule of law, and it is becoming increasingly unclear who “Serbs” even are.
Translated by Marijana Simić
Peščanik.net, 19.03.2026.
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