Rapajic: Legislation is a living thing, it must change according to circumstances

The Program Director of the NGO Center for Advocacy of Democratic Culture from North Mitrovica, Aleksandar Rapajic, told Kosovo Online that the Self-Determination Movement, in the process of constituting the Kosovo Assembly, is trying to find “loopholes in the law,” but also noted that it is not uncommon for certain situations to be unregulated by law, which is why mechanisms exist to change them.

“We have seen that not all situations that can occur in real life are regulated by law. That is not such a rare fact, because when lawmakers write legislation, they can’t predict every possible scenario. That’s why mechanisms exist to change laws and to seek the opinion of the Constitutional Court,” Rapajic stated.

According to him, legislation is a living thing that must be adapted to current circumstances.

“We have seen that Self-Determination has a desire to circumvent the law and to operate without respecting it by finding loopholes. This happens everywhere, it has happened in Serbia and happens in other legislative systems. Legislation is a living system and must constantly evolve to fit the situations that arise. The electoral law in Kosovo was recently changed, but we still see that it failed to foresee many situations that are now occurring,” Rapajic added.

He emphasized that the Constitution and laws of Kosovo were largely copied from European countries without considering the legal practices in the Balkans.

“In this situation, we saw that the majority delayed the constitution of the assembly, holding sessions every two days. That could have gone on indefinitely, exploiting a legal loophole: until the president of the assembly is elected, no further steps can be taken. The Constitutional Court ended this practice and ruled that the assembly is not considered constituted until the president and vice presidents are elected, that it is not enough just to verify MPs' mandates. Verification of mandates does not mean the assembly is formed. In this way, one legal loophole was closed, one that could have been abused. But there are still many undefined issues that need to be regulated. When the Constitution and laws were drafted, it was done hastily, copying certain European solutions without considering the full range of practices common in the Balkans,” Rapajic emphasized.