Constitutional justice - Cooperation between
the Venice Commission and Constitutional Courts
Since its establishment in 1990, the Venice Commission saw cooperation with constitutional courts as essential in promoting constitutionalism, understood as the idea that all action by the state should be confined to the limits set by the constitution. Constitutional courts and equivalent bodies (constitutional councils and supreme courts exercising such jurisdiction) are pivotal in ensuring that all branches of power respect the constitution.
The Venice Commission aims to strengthen constitutional courts and equivalent bodies by providing various services for the courts and by directly supporting them when they come under undue pressure. This cooperation is steered by the Venice Commission’s Joint Council on Constitutional Justice, which shapes the tools provided by the Commission that enable the exchange of information and cross-fertilisation between courts. These tools are the e-Bulletin on Constitutional Case-Law, the CODICES database and the Venice Forum. Upon request by the courts, the Venice Commission provides amicus curiae briefs.
While the Venice Commission is a European institution, it also extends some of these services – notably the CODICES database and the Venice Forum – to constitutional courts beyond its Member States. The Venice Commission cooperates closely with regional and language-based groups of constitutional courts. Cooperation with these groups grew into the World Conference on Constitutional Justice, for which the Venice Commission acts as the Secretariat.
Occasionally, the Venice Commission also invites Presidents of Constitutional Courts or equivalent bodies to its plenary sessions (e.g. Germany, Hungary, South Korea, Switzerland and Türkiye).
In order to steer its cooperation with the constitutional courts and to inform them about its activities (in the field of constitutional justice), the Venice Commission established the Joint Council on Constitutional Justice (JCCJ). The JCCJ is composed of members of the Venice Commission and the liaison officers, appointed by the constitutional courts. The JCCJ has a double presidency, which means that its meetings are co-chaired. One of the chairs is a member of the Venice Commission, elected by the Commission at a plenary session and the other is a liaison officer, elected by the liaison officers during the meetings of the JCCJ. The mandates of the two co-chairs run for two years each.
All Venice Commission member States, observer states and states or entities with special cooperation status (notably South Africa, Palestine*), as well as the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights participate in the JCCJ as well.
The meetings of the JCCJ are generally followed by a “mini-conference” on a topic in the field of constitutional justice, chosen by the liaison officers during which they present the relevant case-law of their courts.
The topics of recent mini-conferences are:
- Measures taken by States in response to the COVID-19 crisis and their impact on constitutional justice – constitutional case-law on emergency situations (2023, Sofia, Bulgaria)
- Independence of the judiciary, the role of Constitutional Courts" (2019, Rome, Italy)
- Gender, equality and discrimination (2018, Lausanne, Switzerland)
- Courageous courts: security, xenophobia and fundamental rights (2017, Karlsruhe, Germany)
- Migration (2016, Venice, Italy)
- Blasphemy and other limitations on the freedom of expression (2015, Bucharest, Romania)
The JCCJ meets once a year, at the invitation of one of the participating courts.
The electronic Bulletin on Constitutional Case-Law (“e-Bulletin) regularly reports on the case-law of constitutional courts and courts with equivalent jurisdiction in Venice Commission member and observer states, including case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The e-Bulletin is sent to liaison officers and to subscribers by e-mail three times a year, each mailing reports on the most important case-law gathered during a four-month period. If you wish to receive the e-Bulletin free of charge, please subscribe here.
Previous Bulletins (from 2000 onwards) are available here: Bulletins.
Special Bulletins are published on the topic of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts (CECC) congresses.
The CODICES database (www.codices.coe.int) contains the full text of over 10 000 judgments from over 100 courts mainly in English and in French, but also in other languages, as well as summaries of these judgments (précis) in English and in French.
CODICES also contains the laws on constitutional courts and courts with equivalent jurisdiction and the constitutions of nearly all the Venice Commission member and observer states as well as other information, such as court descriptions and the Joint Council on Constitutional Justice’s mini-conference reports (see above).
Useful link: CODICES database
The main task of the European Commission for Democracy through Law, known as the Venice Commission, is to provide legal advice to its Member States wishing to bring their legal and institutional structures in line with European standards and international experience in the fields of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. This legal advice takes the form of legal opinions on draft legislation or on legislation that is already in force.
If the requests by the member states of the Venice Commission are made by national constitutional courts or courts with equivalent jurisdiction (or the European Court of Human Rights), the opinions provided by the Venice Commission are then referred to as “amicus curiae briefs”.
An amicus curiae brief by the Venice Commission provides information on comparative constitutional and international law issues. The Venice Commission’s role is therefore not to address the specific cases pending before the requesting Court nor to assess the constitutionality of domestic provisions. This is the national Court’s role.
For this reason, the Venice Commission asks the Courts in their requests for an amicus curiae brief, to formulate specific questions they would like the Venice Commission to answer.
Recent amicus curiae briefs are available here.
See also : all briefs for the ECtHR
Since 1996, the Venice Commission has established cooperation with a number of regional or language based groups of constitutional courts, in particular the Conference of European Constitutional Courts, the Association of Francophone Constitutional Courts, the Southern African Chief Justices Forum, the Eurasian Association of Constitutional Review Bodies, the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts and Equivalent Institutions, the Union of Arab Constitutional Courts and Councils, the Ibero-American Conference of Constitutional Justice, the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdictions of Africa and the Conference of Constitutional Jurisdiction of the Portuguese Speaking Countries. The purpose of this cooperation is to strengthen the court members of the groups in their task of safeguarding the supremacy of their constitutions.
By virtue of cooperation agreements with the Venice Commission, court members of these groups are able to contribute their case-law to the COCICES database and the groups are represented in the JCCJ. Membership in these groups as well as direct participation in the work of the JCCJ entitles the courts to become members of the World Conference on Constitutional Justice (see below). In this context, the Venice Commission also cooperates with apex courts in the Commonwealth / Common Law countries.
Constitutional courts are sometimes not only criticised for their judgments – which is legitimate – but also threatened by political bodies, which adopted the measures the court found to be unconstitutional. Such threats can take various forms: reduction of the court’s budget, adoption of legislation blocking the court’s work, refusal to appoint judges or purely political nominations to ‘capture’ the court. In a few cases, constitutional courts were even abolished outright.
In such cases, the Venice Commission – or in urgent cases its President – can adopt declarations or statements denouncing these practices. Upon request, the Venice Commission also provides opinions on legislation that allegedly threatens to block a court and courts can request amicus curiae briefs from the Venice Commission when they fear that their judgments could bring about such pressure against them.
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Palestine * - This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of Council of Europe member States on this issue.