Kosovo – Unique Case of the Parallel Justice System

Abstract

The end of the 1998/1999 war with Serbia, found Kosovo with two governments, which, UNIMK replaced conform the 1244 Resolution of the SC. UNMIK’s operation was based in four pillars and 14 departments. The Department of Justice was a department that operated with obstacles as a result of the organized Serbian parallel system in Kosovo’s territory. Which unfortunately transformed into a phenomenon that was allowed silently by UNMIK’s administration. The functioning of such an operation damages the interests of Kosovan citizens, who are trialed twice for the same case. Double sentences of Kosovo’s citizens in Kosovo’s courts and in the parallel Serbian courts that operate in Serbia are causing major problems in the already fragile Kosovan justice system. According to the official data, it results that there are 22 parallel Serbian courts that operate within this parallel system, in North Kosovo and various cities within Serbia. This form of parallel judiciary continues to function even after the Declaration of Independence (2008) and after the arrival of EULEX mission in Kosovo. We think that the functioning of this parallel Serbian system in a territory where it has no sovereignty, as a unique case in Europe, should seize to exist with the sole purpose of empowering and functioning of the juridical and justice system in Kosovo, for the sake of respecting fundamental principles of the human rights and respecting of the ne bis in idem principle.