Constitutional Law Theory

Con ordinanza del 18 febbraio 2018, il Tribunale de L’Aquila ha accolto il ricorso presentato da un cittadino bengalese avverso il diniego espresso dalla Commissione Territoriale per il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale di Ancona, accordando al medesimo la protezione umanitaria ex art. 5, comma 6, d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998. Il giudice abruzzese fonda la protezione sull’obbligo internazionale di cui all’art. 11 del Patto internazionale sui diritti economici, sociali e culturali (diritto ad un livello di vita adeguato), il quale troverebbe «riscontro» negli artt. 2 e 32 Cost. In realtà, sarebbe stato più corretto far riferimento all’ art. 12 dello stesso Patto (diritto alla salute), ritenuto dallo stesso Comitato per i diritti economici, sociali e culturali delle Nazioni Unite un «diritto inclusivo». Tuttavia, se è nel diritto alla salute come inteso dal Patto che risiederebbe il fondamento del riconoscimento della protezione, sarebbe bastato richiamare l’art. 32 Cost.: il giudice, infatti, è costituzionalmente tenuto ad interpretare le disposizioni nazionali in conformità alla portata individuata in sede internazionale. Se ciò che giustifica il riconoscimento della protezione umanitaria sono gli obblighi internazionali e costituzionali da un lato e la presenza di seri motivi umanitari dall’altro, si può dire che il quid della protezione umanitaria consiste nella possibilità di garantire tutela al migrante anche laddove non siano direttamente in questione i suoi «diritti umani inalienabili» (la cui tutela è di per sé imposta dalla Costituzione e dal diritto internazionale), in ragione del quadro sociale, politico e ambientale caratterizzante il suo Paese d’origine, compromesso a tal punto da impedire il rimpatrio del richiedente. L’art. 5, comma 6, d.lgs. n. 286 del 1998 è stato parzialmente abrogato dal d.l. n. 113 del 2018 (c.d. “decreto sicurezza”), convertito nella l. n. 132 del 2018; se l’eliminazione del riferimento agli obblighi internazionali e costituzionali non vale certo a liberare lo Stato dai medesimi, vien da sé che l’unico effetto concreto derivante dall’abrogazione consiste nell’impossibilità di accordare rilevanza alle condizioni oggettive poste a base della richiesta di protezione (ossia ai «seri motivi…di carattere umanitario»), che, forse, in parte “riemergono” nel contesto del nuovo permesso di soggiorno per calamità introdotto dallo stesso d.l. n. 113 del 2018.

This contribution examines changes to the selection and appointment of judges to the Slovak Constitutional Court. A year before a scheduled replacement of nine judges of the Court in 2019, the government introduced constitutional and legislative reforms of the process. The leitmotif of the proposed reform was an effort to qualitatively improve the appointment process at the point of selection, and increase the sum of available public information about candidates for the position. The government ultimately succeeded in implementing legislative reforms of the selection process but not the constitutional amendment.

The Slovak Parliament recently passed a legislative rider to extend the length of the silence period, which prohibits the publication of opinion polls before an election. Slovak electoral rules had previously prohibited political campaigning and the publication of opinion polls 14 days before an election taking place. The new legislation makes the Slovak moratorium “third-longest in the world after Cameroon and Tunisia,” according to the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

The legislative change was widely criticised as unconstitutional, not least because legislative riders that are materially unrelated to the proposed law are prohibited by Article 93(3) of Standing Orders of the Parliament. The President of the Republic, therefore, decided to veto the extension on the grounds that the extended silence period disproportionately infringes the information rights of citizens and media. The President also declared that she would challenge the legislation in court and request an interim injunction against its effect if the Parliament were to overturn her veto.

The presidential veto has only a suspensive effect in law and can be overturned by a simple majority of all MPs (76 out of 150) pursuant to Article 84.3 of the Constitution. On November 26, the Parliament overturned the veto against expectations of most legal scholars and political observers. The Parliament has to publish the new electoral rule in the official gazette, which will enable the President to challenge the legislation at the Constitutional Court.

This contribution first explores comparative case-law on the extension of the silence period and then critically examines the constitutionality of the 50-day silence period in the Slovak law. This is not a difficult case in substance. The Slovak Constitution, as well as the European Convention of Human Rights, only allow the limitation of information rights if the restrictive measure pursues a legitimate aim, is necessary, and proportionate. The 50-day silence period fails to meet all of these criteria and is thus clearly unconstitutional.

Danish Parliamentary Ombudsman Jørgen Steen Sørensen resigned from office on November 1 to take on the job of a Supreme Court judge. Sørensen had announced his intention to resign on short notice because of the extraordinary circumstance of his audition for a Supreme Court judge. However, with the Parliament shut until October because of the summer recess, MPs struggled to find the new Ombudsman. The Parliament eventually filled the vacancy with a month delay, but throughout this time, it was not clear who was up in the running, how to apply for the position, or when the decision on the new Ombudsman will be made.

The delay was also due to the fact that the Standing Committee of the Parliament on Legal Affairs (LAC), which is tasked with authority to propose a suitable candidate for an Ombudsman to the Parliament, had a hard time reaching an agreement. The Committee, therefore, decided to appoint a temporary Ombudsman in the interim, who served the whole month of November 2019. The Ombudsman proper will take office on December 1.

The episode showed that the selection of an Ombudsman in Denmark is unwieldy and somewhat obscure, especially when compared to appointments to other public offices and comparative best practice. This contribution examines the procedure for selection of the Danish Parliamentary Ombudsman, taking the recently adopted “Venice Principles on the Protection and Promotion of the Ombudsman Institution” as a benchmark. The selection process of the Danish Ombudsman could be modernised at least in one important way: the process should be opened up to allow for external applications that would be transparently processed and evaluated.

The change in the Slovak electoral legislation from September 2019 was meant to prevent judges from travelling back and forth between politics and law. The new rules require that judges give up their office to run for a parliamentary election. This contribution reviews the rules on the political activity of judges in Slovakia from 1993 onwards and contextualises this most recent development.

This contribution quantitatively examines the prolific drafting of constitutional amendment proposals by the far-right Kotleba – People’s Party Our Slovakia. The current parliamentary term in Slovakia surpassed all previous terms on record in the number of submitted proposals for constitutional change, and almost a third of all proposals have been authored by the People’s Party.

This article argues that the root of recent crises and political stalemate in Northern Ireland lies in a constitutional failure. The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 played an innovative constitutional role in Northern Ireland, and this was central to peace and stability. Yet its own principles were underspecified and disputed. Strong convergent action by the British and Irish states functioned as an informal mode of constitutional adjudication and it stabilised the settlement. It failed, however, to emphasise constitutional principles or to embed them within the politics of Northern Ireland. British and Irish interests and capacities have changed and with them the role the states play in Northern Ireland; the result from 2012 has been recurrent political crisis. If the informal British-Irish approach cannot be sustained, the likely alternative-a narrower form of British sovereigntism-carries still greater dangers to stability.

The article considers several contemporary issues concerning the execution of the Constitutional
Court decisions. The author states that the key body vested with necessary competences for
ensuring the execution of the discussed decisions is the Constitutional Court itself. At the same
time, the author concludes that formation of the proper system of the Constitutional Court
decision execution firstly depends on the corresponding level of constitutional and political
culture of the society. This circumstance, in its turn, leads to suppose that the achievement of
the discussed goal is possible only if all the subjects included in this sphere express respect to
Constitutional Court, its competences and decisions.

В статье рассматриваются вопросы относительно избирательного права граждан, осуждённых к лишению свободы и отбывающих наказание. Автор обосновывает, что международная практика и стандарты относительно обсуждаемой проблемы таковы, что для граждан, осужденных к лишению свободы
и отбывающих наказание, могут быть предусмотрены отдельные ограничения избирательного права.
Однако совершенно неприемлемо и не соответствует
международным стандартам такое правовое регулирование, в рамках которого вышеуказанные лица
полностью лишаются избирательных прав. Подчёркивается, что на современном этапе избирательное
право не может восприниматься как преимущество.
Оно, конечно, не является также и абсолютным правом, и государства имеют соответствующие рамки
усмотрения в упомянутой сфере. И хотя эти рамки
достаточно широки, необходимо учитывать то обстоятельство, что ограничения избирательного права, в частности, применяемые к указанной категории
лиц, не должны искажать саму сущность обсуждаемого права, лишать данное право эффективности,
должны преследовать правомерную цель и быть соразмерными. Они, в первую очередь, не должны искажать принцип свободного волеизъявления народа,
иначе говоря, не должны лишать избирательный процесс целостности и эффективности, так как данный
процесс направлен на раскрытие воли народа на основании всеобщего избирательного права.

The article considers the issues with regard to suffrage (electoral right) of citizens sentenced to prison and serving the sentence, and the need to improve the constitutional and legislative regulation of the Republic of Armenia on the subject matter

Հոդվածում հետազոտվում են սահմանադրական զարգացումների սահմանադրականությանն առնչվող հարցադրումները: Հիմնավորվում է, որ թեև առաջին հայացքից «սահմանադրական զարգացումների սահմանադրականության» գաղափարը կարող է պարադոքսալ հնչել, սակայն այն սահմանադրականության երաշխավորման կարևորագույն գրավականներից է և ունի կոնկրետ բովանդակություն:

В статье рассматриваются вопросы развития конституционных решений относительно основных прав и свобод человека и гражданина в Республике Армения. Автор обосновывает, что что последовательная реализация принципа верховенства права
и совершенствование конституционных механизмов
гарантирования основных прав и свобод человека
являются важнейшими предпосылками укрепления
основ конституционного строя государства, развития конституционной культуры общества, традиций
государственного строительства, а также обеспечения нормального самовыражения и самореализации
индивида. С этой точки зрения очевидно, что государство, признавая наивысшей ценностью человека,
его достоинство, основные права и свободы, должно
обеспечивать неуклонную реализацию принципа верховенства права и гарантировать ограничение власти
правом. Более того, конституционные нормы должны не только провозглашать конституционные права человека, но и максимально четко устанавливать
гарантии их реализации, обязательства государства,
допустимые рамки ограничения отдельных прав. Права человека должны рассматриваться как реализуемые права, а их ограничения должны исходить из
норм международного права, быть соразмерными, не
должны искажать содержание и смысл права, долж-
ны быть четко установлены законом и сочета

The issues of constitutional solutions with regard to human and citizens' fundamental rights and freedoms in the Republic of Armenia are considered in the article. The author concludes that the consistent implementation of the principle of
rule of law and improvement of constitutional mechanisms
for guaranteeing fundamental human rights and freedoms
are important preconditions for strengthening the foundations
of the constitutional order of the state, development of
the constitutional culture of the society, traditions of state building,
as well as ensuring normal self-expression and
self-realisation of an individual. From this point of view, it is
obvious that the state, when recognising the human being,
his/her dignity, fundamental rights and freedoms as the
highest value, must ensure an unswerving implementation of the principle of rule of law and guarantee the restriction
of the power by law. Moreover, constitutional norms must
not only declare constitutional rights of the human being
but also stipulate as precisely as possible the guaranties
for their implementation, the obligations of the state, and
permissible scope of the restriction of certain rights. Human
rights must be regarded as self-executing rights and
their restrictions must derive from the norms of international
law, be proportionate, must not distort the content
and the meaning of the right, must be precisely stipulated
by law, and comply with the equivalent obligations of the
state.

Монографія присвячена європейській моделі конституціоналізму, її ціннісній основі та структурі. У книзі досліджуються витоки європейської моделі конституціоналізму, ключові етапи її формування, аналізуються базові конституційні цінності та структурні елементи. Окрема увага приділена конституційним кризам у сучасних європейських державах. Сучасні виклики європейської моделі конституціоналізму проектуються на українські реалії та робляться висновки щодо врахування закономірностей її розвитку в національній практиці державотворення. Дослідження виконане на основі використання широкого кола доктринальних джерел, конституцій та законодавства європейських держав, документів органів Ради Європи, Європейського союзу, практики ЄсПЛ.
Книга адресована науковцям, викладачам і студентам юридичних ЗВО, а також політологам, службовцям органів публічної влади, практикуючим юристам.

Fecha de recepción: 31-5-16 Fecha de aceptación: 27-3-17 Resumen: El texto es un acercamiento a la justicia indígena, no limitado al Ecuador o lo andino, partiendo de su reconocimiento como derecho humano, el cual se encuentra íntimamente vinculado con otros derechos como el de igualdad y no discriminación y el derecho a la autodeterminación de los pueblos, todo esto además relacionado con principios extrajurídicos, guías y orientadores, como la interculturalidad y la plurinacionalidad. Se pretende develar un escenario en el cual los problemas alrededor de la vigencia de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas escapa a las discusiones sobre su interpretación y aplicabilidad, y se manifiesta en dimensiones mucho mayores y transversales; además se presenta una propuesta de cómo lograr una mejor comprensión de lo indígena y alcanzar en consecuencia el respeto de sus derechos*. Abstract: The essay approaches traditional indigenous justice systems beyond Ecuador and the Andean region, presenting them as a human right that is intimately linked to equality, non-discrimination and self-determination. All of which is intertwined with orienting principles that transcend the legal sphere such as interculturalism and plurinationalism. Conceptual scenery appears in which the problems associated to indigenous peoples rights transcend discussions regarding their applicability and interpretation by manifesting them through multilevel dimensions; presenting a consolidated understanding of indigenous peoples and their rights.

The empirical evidences of constitution-making conducted by the United Nations (UN) represent a significant challenge to contemporary constitutional law and to the deeper tradition of modern constitutionalism.  By incorporating the ideals that sustain democracy to the UN there was a change of perspective as to its role: the political-juridical structuring of a nation in turmoil. This paper discusses the pre-constituent and constituent stages of the constitutional assistance processes developed by the UN in states that have democratization needs. The focus of the discussion relates to the possibilities and limitations of such processes, led by the UN as an international institutional authority with the aim of being responsible for the appeasement of large areas of turmoil. Whether in the pre-constituent phase, or in the constituent phase, we are addressing political-legal processes in which a global international organization interferes in the adoption or reform of a constitution by a national state. The fact reveals, firstly, the political, economic and social fragility of certain parts of the world - subject to fratricidal disputes that include the violence and the subjection of considerable parcels of their populations. Secondly, the fact reveals the difficulty that the global international system encounters in positioning itself adequately in the face of the problem without the marks of colonization. The problematization, from the subject of study, adopts a dogmatic profile and is promoted through an interdisciplinary approach, guided by the critical-dialectical model. It was undertaken, during the research of qualitative data collected from the real events, with the objective of explaining, exploring and describing current phenomena inserted in the analyzed context. Thus, the research is based in the following elements: doctrine and official documentation issued by the United Nations.

KEYWORDS: United Nations. Constitutionmaking
processes. Pre-constituent phase.
Constituent phase.