This date coincided with the starting point of the history of a constitutional court in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Essentially, the distinction between these various types of jurisdiction is based on the extent to which the Constitutional Court, in addition to the classical task of upholding constitutionality, also has, in certain types of disputes, a more direct relation with the judicial or legislative authority concerned.

In effect, the Court has to decide on positive or negative conflicts of jurisdiction, or any other disputes that may arise under relations between the state and entity authority and/or the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In special cases, the Court also has jurisdiction to examine whether an Entity's decision to establish a special parallel relationship with a neighboring state is consistent with the Constitution including provisions concerning the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This confirms its role as being a special institutional safe-guard for the protection of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.

The jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court in the case of 'blockage' of the work of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning an issue of destructiveness to the vital interest of constituent peoples, represents in many ways a typical area of activity of a constitutional court, as this represents a close 'interface' between the "judicial" and "legislative" authorities.

The judges selected by the President of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina or of any neighbouring state.

The Constitution also states that for appointments made more than five years after the initial appointment of judges, the Parliamentary Assembly could provide by law for a different method of selection of the three judges selected by the President of the European Court of Human Rights, however it has still not changed that.

Also, political influence has a great part in the appointment of judges, so persons with very active political carriers have been chosen by the parliaments of entities, like the current judges Seada Palavrić and Mirsad Ćeman (former longtime members of SDA party) or Krstan Simić (member of SNSD party before his selection).

[6] The formal name of this item is U-5/98, but it is widely known as the "Decision on the constituency of peoples" (Serbo-Croatian: Odluka o konstitutivnosti naroda), referring to the Court's interpretation of the significance of the phrase "constituent peoples" used in the Preamble of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.