The European Commission for Democracy through Law, better
known as the Venice Commission, is
the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters. Established
in 1990, the commission has played a leading role in the adoption of
constitutions that conform to the standards of Europe's constitutional heritage.
Initially conceived as a tool for emergency
constitutional engineering, the commission has become an internationally
recognised independent legal think-tank. Today it contributes to the dissemination of the European
constitutional heritage, based on the continent's fundamental legal values while
continuing to provide “constitutional first-aid” to individual states. The
Venice Commission also plays a unique and unrivalled role in crisis management
and conflict prevention through constitution building and advice.
The Commission meets in
plenary four times a year - in March, June, October and December - in Venice, in
Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista.
The Commission's legal status and composition
Established in 1990 as a partial agreement of 18 member
states of the Council of Europe, the commission in February 2002 became an
enlarged agreement, allowing non-European states to become full members.
The Venice Commission is composed of “independent experts
who have achieved eminence through their experience in democratic
institutions or by their contribution to the enhancement of law and
political science” (article 2 of the revised Statute).
The members are senior academics, particularly in the
fields of constitutional or international law, supreme or constitutional
court judges or members of national parliaments. Acting on the commission in
their individual capacity, the members are appointed for four years by the
participating countries. Since December 2009 the president of the Commission
is Mr Gianni BUQUICCHIO.
Member States
All Council of Europe member states1 are members of the Venice Commission; in addition, Kyrgyzstan joined the commission in
2004, Chile in 2005, the Republic of Korea in
2006, Morocco and Algeria in 2007, Israel in 2008, Peru and
Brazil in 2009, Tunisia and Mexico in 2010, Kazakhstan in novembre 2011. The Commission thus has 58 full members in all.
Belarus is associate member, while Argentina, Canada, the Holy See, Japan,
the United States
and Uruguay are observers. South Africa and Palestinian National Authority have a special co-operation status
similar to that of the observers.
The European Commission and OSCE/ODIHR participate in the plenary sessions of the
Commission.
The work of the European Commission for Democracy through
Law aims at upholding the three underlying principles of Europe's
constitutional heritage: democracy, human rights and the rule of law - the
cornerstones of the Council of Europe. Accordingly, the Commission works in
the following four key-areas:
1 Council of Europe has 47
member states: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland,
Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, ”The former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro,
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San
Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,
Ukraine, United Kingdom
