Original scientific paper
Control of Constitutionality of Constitutional Norms (Constitutional Amendments and Constitutional Laws)
Jasna Omejec
; President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia and regular member of the Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences
Abstract
The article discusses the doctrine of substantive unconstitutionality of constitutional norms (constitutional amendments and constitutional laws), bringing together the concepts of fundamental legitimacy and constitutionality with the aim of safeguarding the legitimacy of order by defending values and principles which are considered to be fundamental. The author focuses on the case law of the German Federal constitutional court regarding the meaning and scope of the so-called perpetuality clause, contained in Article 79, paragraph 3 of the German Basic law (Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland). This constitutional clause protects the essential characteristics of the German Basic law from constitutional amendments contrary to structural constitutional principles, or structural or fundamental state norms of the German constitutional order. The Czech perpetuality clause is also presented, as well as the case law of the Constitutional court of the Czech Republic related to the competence of the Court to assess the constitutionality of constitutional norms. On the other hand, the article gives a comparative overview of constitutional solutions and case law of constitutional courts as the highest regular courts with constitutional jurisdiction in the states whose constitutions do not contain the perpetuality clause (Ireland, France, Hungary, Slovenia). Finally, the author discusses the Croatian constitutional solutions and case law of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia regarding its competence to assess the constitutionality of constitutional norms (constitutional amendments and constitutional laws).
Keywords
inalterability of constitutional norms; inalterability of constitutional principles; perpetuality clause; unconstitutional constitutional norms (unconstitutional constitutional amendments, unconstitutional constitutional laws); constitutional court; control of constitutional norms by constitutional courts
Hrčak ID:
68261
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2010.
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