The relationship between domestic and international law in the constitutional system of Republic of
Slovenia
Assoc. Prof. dr. Jernej Letnar Černič, Graduate School of Government and European Studie, Ljubljana
and Kranj

The Basic Constitutional Charter, Section 2
•“The state borders of the Republic of Slovenia are the internationally recognised state borders
between the hitherto SFRY and the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Italy and the Republic of
Hungary in the part where these states border the Republic of Slovenia, and the border between the
Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia within the hitherto SFRY.”
•

Constitution of Slovenia, Article 8
•“Laws and other regulations must comply with generally accepted principles of international law
and with treaties that are binding on Slovenia. Ratified and published treaties shall be applied
directly.”
•

Bay of Piran



Arbitration between Slovenia and Croatia
•The Arbitration Tribunal awarded ¾ of the Bay of Piran to Slovenia and established junction regime
with the High Seas •It decided that land borders generally follows cadastral borders, thereby
leaving 24 houses of Slovenian families in Croatia.

•



The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, Opinion Rm-1/09
•VI. Article 3 (1) (a), Article 4 (a), and Article 7 (2) and (3) of the Arbitration Agreement
between the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Government of the Republic of Croatia,
which must be interpreted and reviewed as a whole in terms of content, are not inconsistent with
Article 4 of the Constitution in conjunction with Section II of the Basic Constitutional Charter on
the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Slovenia.

Opinion Rm-1/09, para. 62.
•“The award of the Arbitral Tribunal will entail an extraordinary legal situation, as this decision
will be a legal instrument which will only exist in the sphere of international law and therefore
it will not at all be possible to speak of its unconstitutionality in the sense of the
inconsistency of national regulations with the Constitution.”

Opinion Rm-1/09, para. 63.
•In order to avoid such an exceptional legal situation, which at this moment cannot be predicted,
the Constitutional Court calls on the National Assembly to weigh whether it would be reasonable to
amend the Constitution in order to prevent any unconstitutionality of the national legislation
(laws which regulate municipal territories, courts, administrative units, constituencies, etc.) by
which, on the basis of the Agreement, the award of the Arbitral Tribunal is to be implemented.