Rights Before Courts: A Study of Constitutional Courts in Postcommunist States of Central and Eastern Europe

470 Pages·2014·3.51 MB·English

by  Wojciech Sadurski (auth.)

Wojciech Sadurski
Rights Before
Courts
A Study of Constitutional Courts in
Postcommunist States of Central and
Eastern Europe
Second Edition
Rights Before Courts

Wojciech Sadurski
Rights Before Courts
A Study of Constitutional Courts
in Postcommunist States of Central
and Eastern Europe
Second Edition
WojciechSadurski
UniversityofSydney
Australia
UniversityofWarsaw
Poland
ISBN978-94-017-8934-9 ISBN978-94-017-8935-6(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-94-017-8935-6
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergNewYorkLondon
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Preface to the Second Edition
When the first edition of this book appeared, it was about 15 years after the first
transformationsofwhathadbeenearlierknownastheSovietbloc:thedemocratic
transitions which began in Poland, followed by the collapse of the German Dem-
ocratic Republic and the reunification of Germany, the “velvet revolution” in
Czechoslovakia, the violent collapse of Communism in Romania, the round-table
“pacted”changeinHungary,andthesnowballeffectthatfollowedthroughoutthe
wholeEasternpartoftheContinent.NowasIamwritingthesewords,preparations
forthecelebrationofthe25thanniversaryofthefirstnon-Communistgovernment
in the post-War history of the region (the Mazowiecki government in Poland,
formed4June1989)areunderway.
Inthe10yearswhichhavepassed,agreatdealhashappenedasfarasthetopicof
thebook,constitutionalcourtsofCentralandEasternEurope(CEE),isconcerned:
new decisions inallfields ofrights adjudication coveredin the first edition of the
bookhavebeenhandeddownand,mostimportantly,constitutionalcourtschanged
fromnovel,almostexperimentaldevices,intofullyconsolidated,permanentfixtures
of the constitutional landscape of the region. This new, second and fully updated
editionattemptstotakenoteofthemostimportant developmentssincetheendof
2004(whichwasthelimitingdateofthefirstedition).Ofcourse,choosingthemost
importantjudgmentstobeincludedhereisaninevitablysubjectiveexercise,andcan
becriticizedasarbitrary–butthenthesamechargecouldhavebeenlevelledagainst
theoriginalchoiceofcaselawdescribedinmyfirstedition,asindeedagainstany
bookofthistype.Imusttakefullresponsibilityforthisselection.
Atthesametime,havingre-readmy2005bookcarefully,andhavingreflected
onceagainuponitsmoretheoreticalargumentsanddiscussionofstructuralissues,I
concluded that I do not see any reasons to modify my general framework and
conclusions.Hence, while this second editionattempts torecord allthe important
structuraldevelopmentsandchanges,Ihavenotrevisedmuchinthefirstpartofthe
bookandintheConclusions.Mostofthechangeswillbefoundinthesecondpart,
where thorough updating was necessary. My aspiration was to produce a work
which can be read as a self-contained and up-to-date book written in 2014 rather
thanjustaneweditionofa2005book.
v
vi PrefacetotheSecondEdition
Therehasbeenonemajorareaofchangeintheregion,comparedtothetimeof
completingthefirstedition,andthatistheaccessionof11countriesoftheregionto
theEuropeanUnion,in2004(Estonia,Latvia,Lithuania,Poland,Slovakia,Czech
Republic, Hungary and Slovenia), 2007 (Romania and Bulgaria) and 2013 (Croa-
tia). The phenomenon of Europeanization which accompanied the accession was
incomparablymorerobustandconsequentialthanearlierEuropeanizationresulting
from the accession of all the countries of the region (except for Belarus) to the
Council of Europe, and to the system of human rights protection under the Euro-
pean Convention on Human Rights. However, for the central focus of this book,
namely the protection of constitutional rights by constitutional courts, the conse-
quencesofaccessiontotheEUareonlyindirect,soIhavedecidednottodevotea
separate section of the book to this issue. However, if readers would like to get
acquainted with my views about the relationship between constitutional courts of
theregionandtheEUlaw,inparticularthesupremacyoftheEUlawovernational
law(including,assomewouldclaim,overnationalconstitutionallaw),Ireferyou
to myrecent detailed studyofthis issue, in Wojciech Sadurski, Constitutionalism
andtheEnlargementofEurope(OxfordUniversityPress2012),chapter3.Readers
will find there also a rather detailed analysis of the relationship between constitu-
tional courts of CEE region and the European Court of Human Rights, the
adjucativebodywithintheCouncilofEurope’ssystemofprotectionofrightsand
liberties(id.,chapter1).
In preparing this second, updated edition, I have been helped by some of my
colleaguesandfriends,whoprovidedmewithinformation,commentsandadvice;
in particular I would like to thank Lech Garlicki, Vlad Perju, Jiri Priban, Renata
Uitz and Mirosław Wyrzykowski. I have also benefitted from the assistance of
two gifted researchers, Margot Brassil and Michał Marek Zio´łkowski. I will not
be repeating here the names of all those who had helped me with the first edition
of my book but I wish to acknowledge, with gratitude, the ongoing inspiration,
from conversations, discussions and intellectual interaction on issues related
to postcommunist constitutionalism or transitional constitutionalism more gene-
rally, with Sujit Choudhry, Adam Czarnota, Stephen Holmes, Ran Hirschl, Sam
Isacharoff, Martin Krygier, Patrick Macklem, Leonardo Morlino, Rick Pildes,
MichelRosenfeld,KimLaneScheppele,DanielSmilov,AlecStoneSweet,Roberto
Toniatti, Joseph Weiler and Jan Zielonka. I am very grateful to two remarkable
educationalinstitutions:toSydneyLawSchool,withwhichIhavebeenpermanently
and happily affiliated for many, many years, and which provided me with a grant
towards writing this edition, and to the Straus Institute at NYU Law School,
which offered me a generous fellowship and a great institutional setting at which
Icompletedmyworkonthisedition.
WojciechSadurski
Contents
PartI Courts
1 TheModelofConstitutionalReviewinCentral
andEasternEurope:AnOverview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 TheEmergenceoftheCurrentModel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 ThePowersofConstitutionalCourtsandInitiators
oftheReviewProcess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3 TheTenureandSelectionofJudges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.4 ConstitutionalCourts’PursuitofaMonopoly
OverConstitutionalAdjudication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
1.5 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2 ConstitutionalCourtsinSearchofLegitimacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.1 TheLegitimacyDilemma. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.2 ConstitutionalCourtsBetweentheJudicial
andLegislativeBranch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.3 Whythe“Continental”ModelofReview:Reasons
orRationalisations?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2.4 ConstitutionalCourtsasProtectorsofMinorities?. . . . . . . . . . . . 84
2.5 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
3 TheModelofJudicialReviewandItsImplications. . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.1 AbstractReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
3.2 Ex-postReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
3.3 FinalReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
3.4 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4 ConstitutionalCourtsandLegislation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.1 TheImpactofConstitutionalCourtsonLaw-Making. . . . . . . . . . 119
4.2 Determinantsofthe“Strength”ofJudicialReview. . . . . . . . . . . . 123
vii
viii Contents
4.3 ConstitutionalCourtandtheParliamentaryMinority. . . . . . . . . . 127
4.4 TheQuestionofJudicialActivismandRestraint. . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
4.5 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
PartII Rights
5 JudicialReviewandProtectionofConstitutionalRights. . . . . . . . . 145
5.1 TwoTheoriesAboutJudicialReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
5.2 TheFact-SensitivityofaTheoryofJudicialReview. . . . . . . . . . . 153
5.3 RightsProtectionandDisagreementAboutRights. . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5.4 PrudenceandJudicialReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
5.5 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6 Personal,CivilandPoliticalRightsandLiberties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.1 ARighttoLifeandDignity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
6.2 FreedomofReligion. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 183
6.3 TheRighttoPrivacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
6.4 FreedomofMovementandtheRight
toChoiceofResidence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
6.5 CitizenshipandVotingRights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
6.6 FreedomofPetition,AssemblyandAssociation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
6.7 FreedomofExpression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
6.8 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
7 Socio-economicRights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
7.1 ControversyAroundSocio-economicRights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
7.2 ConstitutionalCataloguesofSocio-economicRights. . . . . . . . . . 261
7.3 TheStatusofSocio-economicRights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
7.4 TheDrawingofDistinctionsBetweenDifferentTypes
ofRightsbytheCourts:SocialSecurityCases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
7.5 TheRighttoWork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
7.6 RightstoHealthandEducation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
7.7 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
8 EqualityandMinorityRights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
8.1 EqualityandConstitutionalReview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
8.2 GenderandSexualOrientationEquality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
8.3 SpecialCaseofAffirmativeAction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
8.4 MinorityIssuesinCentralandEasternEurope:
AnOverview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
8.5 ConstitutionalDesignofMinorityRights:Group
orIndividualRights?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
8.6 LinguisticRights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
8.7 TheSpecialCaseofMinorityRepresentation
inPublicAuthorities. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 323
8.8 Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Contents ix
9 “Decommunisation”,“Lustration”,andConstitutional
Continuity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
9.1 MainDilemmasRaisedbyDecommunisation
andLustrationLaws. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
9.2 LustrationandDecommunisationinCentral
andEasternEurope. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 343
9.2.1 TheRadicalModel:TheCzechRepublic. . . . . . . . . . . 344
9.2.2 TheIntermediateModel:Albania
andtheBalticStates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
9.2.3 TheLenientModel:Poland,Hungary,Bulgaria
andMacedonia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
9.3 RetroactiveExtensionsofStatutesofLimitation. . . . . . . . . . . 366
9.4 Conclusions:TransitionalJustice
andConstitutionalContinuity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
10 RestrictionsofRights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
10.1 ConstitutionalDesignofLimitsonRights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
10.2 ConstitutionalReviewofStatutoryLimitsonRights:
ProportionalityScrutiny. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
10.3 OtherStandardsofRightsRestrictions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
10.4 ConcludingRemarksonRightsLimitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
10.5 PostscriptonRightsandDuties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
GeneralLiterature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445