Position of the Democratic Club No. 39 - On the role of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic

In connection with the forthcoming ratification of the so called “Treaty of Lisbon”, the Czech public was informed about the intentions of the Czech Premier and subsequently also by the Senate, to submit the treaty to the Constitutional court for evaluation as to whether it is in accord with the Czech Constitution. It is surprising that nobody requested an evaluation of the treaty by the Institute of State and Law prior to signing it. The Democratic Club wants to call attention to some of the facts the Senate has not taken into consideration in connection with its intentions:

The Lisbon Treaty has not yet passed the ratification process in the Parliament and thus has not become part the Czech legal system. The Constitutional court thus cannot decide about its compliance with the Constitution. Court’s eventual evaluation of the treaty’s constitutionality before the ratification process is finished, would not be in accordance with either article 87 of the Constitution (defining the jurisdiction of the Constitutional court which does not include issuing reviews) or with its ruling No.78/2001, which states that the court does not have a right to issue a general interpretation of the Constitution to anybody at any time, but only in the cases when it acts on the basis of its jurisdiction.

The intended action by the Prime Minister and the Senate falls into the problematic practice of applying the law in the Czech Republic, where the participants of court procedures transform the Constitutional court into another step in the appeal process and turn to it with cases that it should not handle. Besides extending the existing long court proceedings, this practice contributes to unacceptable congestion of the Constitutional court.

The Democratic Club therefore recommends that The Constitutional court not be asked to act in the areas that are not part of its mission as defined by the Constitution of the Czech Republic.