scholarly journals Polish Judiciary and the Constitutional Fidelity. „In Judges We Trust”?

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Tadeusz Koncewicz
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Polish Government ◽  
Legal Consequences

Polish Judiciary and Constitutional Fidelity. „In Judges We Trust”?As the Polish government continues to strike at the very heart of the rule of law by refusing to implement, and publish, the judgments of the Constitutional Court, the issue of legal consequences of a judgment delivered, but unpublished and/or unimplemented, comes to the fore. The primary objective of the analysis is to show how disabling the Constitutional Court and constitutional capture of checks-and-balances should translate into the case law of ordinary judges. This latter aspect received only scant attention from the academia. Ordinary courts have their own promises to fulfill when faced with the all-out capture of constitutional essentials making up Polish legal order. As we move forward, these courts should be ready to take on the mantle of quasi-constitutional courts and defend the integrity of the system. Whether they are ready to perform such systemic function is a different question altogether.

scholarly journals A Populist Monster and the future of Constitutional Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Andraž Teršek
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Eu

Abstract The central objective of the post-socialist European countries which are also Member States of the EU and Council of Europe, as proclaimed and enshrined in their constitutions before their official independence, is the establishment of a democracy based on the rule of law and effective legal protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms. In this article the author explains what, in his opinion, is the main problem and why these goals are still not sufficiently achieved: the ruthless simplification of the understanding of the social function and functioning of constitutional courts, which is narrow, rigid and holistically focused primarily or exclusively on the question of whether the judges of these courts are “left or right” in purely daily-political sense, and consequently, whether constitutional court decisions are taken (described, understood) as either “left or right” in purely and shallow daily-party-political sense/manner. With nothing else between and no other foundation. The author describes such rhetoric, this kind of superficial labeling/marking, such an approach towards constitutional law-making as a matter of unbearable and unthinking simplicity, and introduces the term A Populist Monster. The reasons that have led to the problem of this kind of populism and its devastating effects on the quality and development of constitutional democracy and the rule of law are analyzed clearly and critically.

The Role of the Constitutional Court in the Development of the Rule of Law in Kosovo

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-313
Author(s):  
Enver Hasani
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional History ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Communist Countries

Kosovo’s Constitutional Court has played a role of paramount importance in the country’s recent history. The author uses a comparative analysis to discuss the role of the Court in light of the work and history of other European constitutional courts. This approach sheds light on the Court’s current role by analyzing Kosovo’s constitutional history, which shows that there has been a radical break with the past. This approach reveals the fact that Kosovo’s current Constitution does not reflect the material culture of the society of Kosovo. This radical break with the past is a result of the country’s tragic history, in which case the fight for constitutionalism means a fight for human dignity. In this battle for constitutionalism, the Court has been given very broad jurisdiction and a role to play in paving the way for Kosovo to move toward Euro-Atlantic integration in all spheres of life. Before reaching this conclusion, the author discusses the specificities of Kosovo’s transition, comparing it with other former communist countries. Among the specific features of constitutionalism in Kosovo are the role and position of the international community in the process of constitution-making and the overall design of constitutional justice in Kosovo. Throughout the article, a conclusion emerges that puts Kosovo’s Constitutional Court at the forefront of the fight for the rule of law and constitutionalism of liberal Western provenance.

scholarly journals The Responsibility of Courts in Maintaining the Rule of Law: Two Tales of Consequential Judicial Self-Restraint

2021 ◽  
pp. 155-181
Author(s):  
Pál Sonnevend
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legislative Power ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Law

AbstractModern constitutionalism is based on the paradigm that courts are inherently entitled and obliged to enforce the constitution of the respective polity. This responsibility of courts also applies in the context of the European Union to both the CJEU and national constitutional courts. The present chapter argues that in the face of constitutional crises the CJEU and the Hungarian Constitutional Court shy away from applying the law as it is to the full. The reasons behind this unwarranted judicial self-restraint are most different: the CJEU aims to avoid conflicts with national constitutional courts whereas the Hungarian Constitutional Court has been facing a legislative power also acting as constitution making power willing to amend the constitution to achieve specific legislative purposes or to undo previous constitutional court decisions. Yet both courts respond to expediencies that do not follow from the law they are called upon to apply. It is argued that rule of law backsliding requires these courts to abandon the unnecessary self-restraint and exploit the means already available.

LEGAL JUSTICE IN PRESIDENTIAL IMPEACHMENT PRACTICE BETWEEN INDONESIA AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 465
Author(s):  
Hanif Fudin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
The United States ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
Republican Government

The constitution is approved as a law capable of guaranteeing human rights and protection of the constitution and past coordination, as well as being the corpus of the administration of the rule of law entity itself. Regarding the state of Indonesia and the United States, if examined by these two countries, they have similarities in the form of republican government or presidential system of government. However, on the contrary, in the impeachment transition, the two countries appear to be dichotomous both formally and materially. Therefore, this scientific article discusses reviewing the impeachment provisions of the Presidents of the two countries who agree to develop agreements and principles in checks and balances in trying to actualize the value of the country's legal justice. Therefore, in approving the discourse of research methods, descriptive-comparative methods are used with normative-philosophical and comparative-critical discussions. On that basis, this study discusses the practice of presidential impeachment in Indonesia to consider more legal justice, because it is through a legal process involving the Constitutional Court which implements practices in the United States that only involve the Senate and the House of Representatives which incidentally is a political institution. It considers the constitution in the basic law of the country.

Józef Nowacki as a Theoretician of Normativism in Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 248-267
Author(s):  
Sławomir Tkacz
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Third ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Post War ◽  
Legal Theorist ◽  
Historical Sketch

The present paper aims to present an outline of the views of the Polish legal theorist Józef Nowacki (1923–2005). The claim put forward is that Nowacki was the chief representative of Hans Kelsen’s normativism in Polish legal theory. The paper begins with a short historical sketch presenting the reception of Hans Kelsen’s views in Polish jurisprudence, noting that in the post-war period the communist authorities believed that normativism was at odds with the then prevailing system of actually existing socialism. Drawing inspiration from German-speaking authors, Nowacki rejected the ideology prevailing in Poland at that time and became a staunch advocate of the normativist stance, in particular with regard to the theory of the legal system. The second part of the paper discusses Nowacki’s views regarding the concept of the rule of law, and the third and last part presents Nowacki’s critique of the case-law of the Polish Constitutional Court.

scholarly journals Constitutionalizing the act of justice in the European Union

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-63
Author(s):  
MARIETA SAFTA
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Necessary Being ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Constructive Dialogue

This study addresses a component of the constitutionalization process at the Union level, namely the act of justice, considering its importance for the evolution of the constitutionalization process. The significance and importance of the constitutionalization of the act of justice are analyzed, as well as the premises and mechanisms of the constitutionalization of the act of justice in the European Union, with particular reference to the jurisprudence of the Romanian Constitutional Court. In this context, the control of constitutionality appears as a decisive modeling factor of the normative action of the legislator and even of the public policies. The constructive dialogue – if we refer to the two legal orders, national and supranational – is all the more necessary, being noticeable the key role played by national courts – and in particular constitutional courts – in defending the rule of law in the European Union, including through their collaboration with the CJEU in cases and through the instruments provided for in the Constitutions and the Treaties.

scholarly journals Constitutional court procedure and constitutional control in the field of lustration

2021 ◽  
pp. 99-115
Author(s):  
Oksana Shcherbanyuk
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Judicial Control ◽  
European Court ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Law ◽  
Judicial Procedure ◽  
The Right

The article considers the constitutional court procedure and constitutional control in the field of lustration.  These issues are considered through the prism of the rule of law, its understanding by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in its practice.  It is emphasized that the application of the principle of publicity and the requirements of increased publicity is due to the importance of cases heard by constitutional courts, as well as the results of judicial activity. Along with this, the issue of long-term consideration by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine of the law determining lustration is analyzed in detail. The study is updated by the fact that the European Court of Human Rights on the complaints of citizens of Ukraine found a violation of the right of the lustrated to a fair trial due to excessive time of national trials for their release.  It is concluded that the Law on Lustration should serve its most important function in establishing the rule of law in the country. In legal science there is a situation when the views of scholars on the essence of judicial procedure are contradictory, which gives rise to different understandings of this legal phenomenon by representatives of different scientific schools.  For a long time, the problem of judicial procedure was inextricably linked with the consideration of the category of the process, the essential idea of which significantly influenced the understanding of the limits of the procedure in law. The constitutional Court as the only organ of the constitutional-judicial control may be seen as a special (organized on a state basis), the carrier of the intellectual potential of theories of constitutional law.

scholarly journals Relevansi Putusan Uji Materi oleh Mahkamah Konstitusi terhadap Sistem Checks and Balances dalam Pembentukan Undang-Undang

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-379
Author(s):  
Despan Heryansyah ◽  
Harry Setya Nugraha
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Republic

This article discusses the relevance of the judicial review decision by the Constitutional Court to the checks and balances system in law legislation in Indonesia. In the framework of checks and balances between state institutions, the existence of the authority of the Constitutional Court to examine laws against the Constitution can be seen as a limitation for the legislators. This is because the discretion of legislators, namely the President and the House of Representatives, in carrying out the legislation function can be limited by the interpretation of the Constitution carried out by the Constitutional Court. This article concludes, the checks and balances mechanism regulated in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia is realized with the principle of power limited by power. Therefore, the authority and decision of the judicial review by the Constitutional Court is not an intervention on the authority of lawmakers so that it isi assumed to pass the checks and belances principle. The authority and decision of the judicial review by the Constitutional Court actually confirms the manifestation of the principle of power limited by power and affirming the supremacy of the Constitution. Thus, the principle of supremacy of the Constitution in the context of the rule of law places the Constitution as the highest law. Abstrak Artikel ini membahas relevansi putusan uji materi oleh Mahkamah Konstitusi terhadap sistem checks and balances dalam pembentukan hukum berupa undang-undang di Indonesia. Dalam kerangka checks and balances antar lembaga negara, adanya kewenangan Mahkamah Konstitusi menguji undang-undang terhadap Konstitusi dapat dipandang sebagai suatu pembatasan bagi pembentuk undang-undang. Sebab, keleluasaan pembentuk undang-undang, yaitu Presiden dan Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, dalam menjalankan fungsi legislasi bisa dibatasi oleh adanya tafsir Konstitusi yang dilakukan oleh Mahkamah Konstitusi. Artikel ini menyimpulkan, mekanisme checks and balances yang diatur dalam Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Republik Indonesia Tahun 1945 diwujudkan dengan prinsip kekuasaan dibatasi oleh kekuasaan. Karena itu, kewenangan dan putusan uji materi oleh Mahkamah Konstitusi bukanlah wujud intervensi terhadap kewenangan pembentuk undang-undang dan melampaui prinsip checks and balances. Kewenangan dan putusan uji materi oleh Mahkamah Konstitusi justru menegaskan wujud dari prinsip kekuasaan dibatasi kekuasaan dan meneguhkan supremasi Konstitusi. Demikianlah, prinsip supremasi Konstitusi dalam konteks negara hukum yang menempatkan Konstitusi sebagai hukum tertinggi.

The settlement of disputes of a constitutional nature: inside the Romanian Constitutional Court s rulings on the role and competences of the public authorities

2018 ◽  
pp. 51-70
Author(s):  
TUDOREL TOADER
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Constitutional Courts ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Constitutional Justice ◽  
Settlement Of Disputes

The separation and balance of State powers constitute the basis of the rule of law. Observance of this principle requires framing of public authorities within the limits of competence established by the Constitution and the law, as well as loyal cooperation between them. From this perspective, the attribution of the constitutional courts for settling legal disputes of a constitutional nature is an important tool for correcting the tendencies of violation of these limits, as well as for identifying solutions for situations that do not find an explicit regulation in the constitutional texts. The present study analyses the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Romania in the field of legal disputes of a constitutional nature, revealing, together with the presentation of dispute situations, the vulnerabilities of the constitutional reference texts. It is also highlighted the role of the constitutional courts in the evolution of constitutional law institutions. The conclusion of the study, beyond the subject of legal disputes of a constitutional nature, bears on the necessity, even more so in this matter, of the certainty of jurisdictional interpretation. This certainty cannot be achieved as long as the interpretation is not authoritative; consequently, the assurance of the effectiveness of constitutional justice constitute a key issue of the rule of law.

scholarly journals Constitutional principles and their impact on the establishing of constitutional order and rule of law in Kosovo

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 1079-1096
Author(s):  
Nur Çeku ◽  
Haxhi Xhemajli
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
The Republic ◽  
European Standards ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

Considered as a progressive document based on the models of the Western constitutions, the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo has established the legal basis for a functional statethat respects rights and fundamental freedoms while guaranteeing the rule of law. In its provisions, the Constitution has laid down basic principles which serve as the foundation for Kosovo’s constitutional order. In this regard, these constitutional principles have been further enshrined in the provisions of laws that emanate from the Constitution, and also have been established in the institutional mechanisms for its appropriate application. In addition, what played a prominent role in defining these principles was the impact of the Constitutional Court’s case-law. Case-law has reaffirmed in many instances the tremendous importance of constitutional principles in enhancing the rule of law, protecting the rights of minority groups and other members of Kosovo’s society, and the right to freedom of belief and secularism by implementing the most modern European standards in human protection. Hence, this paper analyzess the impact that constitutional principles have had on defining the structure of the state, guaranteeing the rule of law, protection of human rights and establishing Kosovo as a multi-ethnic society. Likewise, it examines the case-law of Kosovo’s Constitutional Court by providing some of the most prominent cases.

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