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Kosovo Constitution is compatible with EU law. Integration in the European Union is one of the key objectives of Kosovo's constitutional preamble and the paper will discuss the prospective constitutional amendments that will occur in Kosovo in anticipation of accession to the European Union. The author's position is that a great part of constitutional non-compliance with EU law can be solved through constitutional interpretation (eg the partial transfer of sovereignty), while other issues will require parliamentary intervention through constitutional amendments, a process which does not always run without difficulty in Kosovo's democracy. In this paper, it is argued that the Kosovo Constitution will require a small package of constitutional amendments during the pre-accession process. Constitutional amendments will be required to ensure the precedence of EU law, but also to ensure that the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in municipal elections by citizens of the EU is guaranteed. Further, the article analyses the kind of impact the EU integration process will have on other specific constitutional issues in Kosovo, such as freedom of movement and the surrender of nationals to other Member States, and what constitutional choices there are to avoid any contradiction between the Constitution and EU law. The study takes into account constitutional adaptations in several Central and Southeast European countries on their path towards EU integration, which can serve as guidelines for the decisionmaking authorities in Kosovo to identify constitutional gaps and flaws in the course of the EU pre-accession process.

In this article, the author first looks at recent constitutional developments in post-status Kosovo by providing an overview of Kosovo's constitutional system from the perspective of both the Constitution and the Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement prepared by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari. The author then explores the foundations of the constitutional review in Kosovo and provides an overview of the process pertaining to the establishment of the 2008 Constitutional Court in Kosovo. After analyzing organizational and jurisdiction-related matters of the Court, the article addresses selected procedural concerns that triggered a lively debate among the framers of the Constitutional Court Act. In particular, the author addresses the right of judges to attach dissenting opinions and whether the publication of such opinions is appropriate in the context of this newly born constitutional democracy. Finally, the author concludes that the lack of a tradition of judicial review and the complex nature of certain morally or politically controversial issues related to finding a constitutional compromise—satisfying both the Settlement and the Constitution—will inevitably make the mission of the Court a very challenging one.

The Constitution of Kosovo has established a number of mechanisms for the separation of powers and reciprocal checks and balances among which is the President’s authority to return legislation for reconsideration. However, the interaction between the President and the Assembly on matters confronting the legislative veto has unveiled a number of constitutional ambiguities and inconsistencies which rendered involvement of the Constitutional Court necessary to define further the constitutionally-contemplated powers of the President for returning legislation for reconsideration. The article analyses the Presidential legislative veto from the prospect of the 2008 Kosovo Constitution. Through constitutional interpretation and practical cases this article seeks to examine more closely the structural and the functional aspect of the Presidential legislative return statements in post-status Kosovo.