Water usage under the concession model in the law of Republika Srpska

Abstract

The author's interest in water usage under the concession model envisaged in the domestic legislation of Republika Srpska was sparked by the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Case No. U-16/20. The analysis of this decision has paved the way for broader reflection, leading to further research which resulted in the creation of this article. Methodologically, the paper is rooted in the normative analysis of the Concessions Act and the Real Rights Act, the latter being the primary legislative act when discussing real property institutions in Republika Srpska. While the initial segment of this article addresses the specific legal regulation of certain kinds of properties and delineates the concepts of water, water assets, and water entities as subjects of property rights, the main focus is on pertinent issues related to water as the subject matter of concession. The scope of concession can encompass a vast array of economic activities. In the context of water, it typically pertains to the utilization of public water assets (e.g., water for technological processes in economic activities, water and waterfronts for hydro reservoirs, swimming pools, ponds, waterfronts for conducting certain economic tasks, and extraction of materials from waterways). Furthermore, the energy potential of water can be tapped when the objective of concession is the construction and operation of energy plants, which stand as one of the paramount economic facets of water utilization. The concluding section delves into the Constitutional Court's practices regarding the concession institution, as well as the notion of "state property" as an increasingly emphasized topic in domestic jurisprudence.

Keywords

• concession
• water
• build-operate-transfer (bot) model
• "state property"
• public property