Duties and behaviors of the highest holders of executive, legislative and judicial power represent the fundamental norms of every legal order. They are almost without exception materia constitutionis, i.e. it is about constitutional and legal norms. However, a large part of these norms are the so-called norms without sanction, that is, their behavior is not dictated by coercion in the classical sense of the word, as one of the typical characteristics of law, but by some other reasons, of a permanently political nature. In other words, these are norms characterized by political coercion or persuasion. If it were not so, probably, if not certainly, this text, as well as many others, would not exist.
A fortiori, this does not represent any problem, bearing in mind that the Constitution is a legal-political act, on the one hand, and that the aforementioned norms are an integral part of almost all modern constitutions in the world, on the other hand. The problem arises when the realization of the Constitution (both its letter and its spirit) depends on the political (non)culture. The constitutional norm, like any legal norm, is related to the institutions that create and apply it, i.e. the political culture of institutions must be legally oriented. Otherwise, we get more arbitrariness and less limited power.
Today's reality is characterized by the relativization of the Constitution as a fundamental legal act both in Montenegro and in the region. My idea of hell would look like this: Serbian executive, Bosnian legislature and Montenegrin judiciary. But let's leave the neighbors, thank God they exist - it's good, we're not the worst, etc., because, on the one hand, our legislative and executive power is not far from them, and, on the other hand, the Montenegrin judicial cataclysm springs directly from the waters of the Assembly and Governments. This is clearly shown by the old and new European Commission Report on Montenegro, which, among other things, states the so-called institutional crisis. The basis of that crisis is the essential (read political) ignoring of the provisions of Article 11 of the Constitution concerning the threefold division of power - the parallel existence of three forms of government whose relationship is characterized by control, limitation and balance. For decades, the judicial power has been a branch of the executive and legislative powers - the Constitutional Court represents the projection of the political parties of the Assembly, and the other courts longa manus executed authorities. The symbiosis of politics and the judiciary, i.e. deviant policies and institutions of the system, led to the marginalization of the EU standard, which is reflected in the Anglo-Saxon legal maxim - Justice must be done and be seen to be done (Justice must be done and must be seen to be done).
Institutional crises are the result of a low level of political culture and the subjectively projected reality of social (political) actors. This is clearly evidenced by the fact of the current census in Montenegro. Namely, the famous American anthropologist Ruth Benedict pointed out that "culture, like an individual, is a more or less consistent pattern of thinking and acting", and that "culture is not only art and literature, but also a way of life, a system of values that determines how we see the world and myself in it". The solution to the crisis lies precisely in the constitutional-political culture - a culture whose basic postulate is constitutional patriotism, which implies not only loyalty to the government but also a set of values that this basic contract between citizens and the state affirms. Such a culture will result in an inclusive society, a society in which justice, equality and freedom form the basis of the common civic identity of the state and its institutions. In other words, the revival of the Constitution through constitutional-political culture and our entry into the EU depends on our common values and efforts.
The author is a doctoral student in legal sciences and a member of the CIVIS at the SO Bar
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