Where the rule of law is concerned it is not enough to help
states to adopt democratic constitutions. There is also a need to help them to
ensure that these are implemented. This is why constitutional justice is also
one of the main fields of activity of the Commission, which has developed close
co-operation with the key players in this field, i.e. constitutional courts and
other courts with equivalent jurisdiction (constitutional councils, supreme
courts). As early as 1991, the Commission set up the Centre on Constitutional
Justice, the main task of which is to collect and disseminate constitutional
case-law.
To this end, the Commission has
established a network of liaison officers with the courts. Three times a year,
they contribute to the Bulletin on Constitutional Case-Law and the database
CODICES of the Commission which are the core of the Commission’s Centre on
Constitutional Justice together with the library and the ‘Venice Forum’ allowing
for a quick exchange of information between the courts on current issues.
The Commission’s activities in this field are supervised by the Joint Council
on Constitutional Justice. This is made up of members of the Commission and
liaison officers appointed by the participating courts in over 50 countries
(including some outside Europe), by the European Court of Human Rights, the
Court of Justice of the European Communities and the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights. The institution of a co-presidency of the Joint Council,
representing both the constitutional courts and the Sub-commission on
Constitutional Justice respectively, further underlines the important role of
the participating courts in this co-operation.
Since 1993, the Commission’s constitutional justice activities have also
included the publication of the Bulletin of Constitutional Case-Law, which
contains summaries in French and English of the most significant decisions taken
by over 90 participating courts. It also has its electronic counterpart, the
CODICES database, which contains a further 7,000 texts of decisions in full,
constitutions and descriptions of many courts and the laws governing them.
These publications have proved to play a vital “cross-fertilisation” role in
constitutional case-law.
Since 1996, the Commission has established co-operation
with a number of regional or language based groups of constitutional courts, in
particular the Conference of European Constitutional Courts, the Association of
Constitutional Courts using the French Language, the Southern African Judges
Commission, the Conference of Constitutional Control Organs of Countries of
Young Democracy (CIS), a number of Asian constitutional courts, the Union of
Arab Constitutional Courts and Councils and the Ibero-American Conference of
Constitutional Justice (see
map).
In the pursuit of the goal of uniting these groups and
their members, the Commission organised for the first time a World Conference on
Constitutional Justice, which was held in Cape Town, South Africa on 23-24
January 2009 in co-operation with the Constitutional Court of South Africa. On
the basis of a declaration adopted at this occasion (http://www.venice.coe.int/WCCJ/WCCJ_E.asp),
the Commission assists a Bureau in the establishment of the World Conference as
a permanent body. At their first meeting in Mexico, the Bureau prepared a draft
statute, which will be finalised at another meeting of the Bureau in December
2009. Early 2010, it should be available for acceptance by the groups and
individual courts.
The courts co-operating with the Venice Commission on a
regional basis (i.e. courts in countries other than member or observer states of
the Commission) have full access to the restricted Venice Commission's Newsgroup
and contribute to the CODICES database.
In response to
requests from a number of constitutional courts, the Commission has established
a series of activities with these bodies. Since 1996, conferences and seminars
have been held in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia,
France, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Rom
ania,
Russia, Slovakia, South Africa and Ukraine (Seminars with Constitutional
Courts). They have covered not only practical
issues, such as case management or the budget of the courts and their relations
with the public, but also topics relating to basic democratic principles, such
as the separation of powers or the independence of the judiciary.
At the request of a
constitutional court or a court with equivalent jurisdiction, the Commission may
also provide amicus curiae opinions, not on the constitutionality of the act
concerned, but on comparative constitutional and international law issues.
One final area of
activity in the constitutional justice sphere is the support provided by the
Commission to constitutional and equivalent courts when these are subjected to
pressure by other authorities of the State. The Commission has even, on several
occasions, already been able to help some courts threatened with dissolution to
remain in existence. It should also be pointed out that, generally speaking, by
facilitating the use of support from foreign case-law, if need be, the Bulletin
and CODICES also help to strengthen judicial authority. Lastly, the Commission
holds seminars and conferences in co-operation with constitutional and
equivalent courts, and makes available to them on the Internet a forum reserved
for them, the “Venice Forum”, through which they can speedily exchange
information relating to pending cases.
