| Popis: |
The chapter compares constitutional court proceedings in the European legal space as well as in selected non-European countries. The most important function—and defining feature—of constitutional courts in the European legal space is still the review of constitutionality of (primary) legislation, which appears in many variations (ex ante and ex post constitutional review, principal and incidental review). Institutional disputes which enable the different branches and institutions of central government to defend their constitutional prerogatives against each other in constitutional court proceedings have received far less attention, both in constitutional regulation and in constitutional practice, and have achieved major prominence only in Italy and Germany. By contrast, the procedures which allow individuals to defend their constitutional rights directly before the constitutional court have grown dramatically in importance with the ‘rights revolution’ in the late twentieth century. However, as the protection of individual rights is not an exclusive task of constitutional courts, but a responsibility shared with the entire judiciary, this development has given rise to new problems, which concern both the management of steeply rising caseloads and the balancing of the relations between the constitutional and the ordinary judiciary. |
