Proceedings before the Court
Proceedings before the Court
Proceedings
The Constitutional Court is separated from the system of general courts. It represents a concentrated and specialised form of constitutional justice.
Legal regulations
The legal regulation of the Constitutional Court is included in the Constitution of the Slovak Republic (Art. 125 through 140) and Law no. 314/2018 on the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, which regulates the details of organisation and proceedings before the Court. The work of the Constitutional Court is further regulated by the Rules of Procedure and the Work Schedule adopted by the Court.
Stages of the proceedings
- Filing a motion
- Electronic allocation to a Judge-Rapporteur
- Review of legal requirements
- Ruling on admission – either admitted for further proceedings or dismissed
- Procedural actions, i.e. serving the motion and other relevant documents on the parties, requesting the opinions of relevant institutions, legal research and drafting of the decision
- Closed session of the judges, possibly a public hearing
- Final decision
Constitutional complaint
Constitutional complaints form the largest part of the decision-making activity. A constitutional complaint may be filed by a private person or a legal entity (“complainant“) claiming violation of their fundamental rights and freedoms and this infringement is alleged to have been caused by a final decision, measure or other intervention of a public authority.
The complainant is required to be represented by an attorney in proceedings before the Constitutional Court. A complaint may be filed within two months from the date on which the challenged decision became final, or on which the complainant became aware of the measure or other intervention.
The Constitutional Court first deliberates at a closed session in the absence of the complainant and examines whether the constitutional and statutory conditions for proceedings are met. A complaint is inadmissible when the complainant has not exhausted all the legal remedies and other legal means of protection of their fundamental rights or freedoms accessible in the Slovak legal order. The Court may award the complainant whose fundamental rights and freedoms have been violated adequate financial satisfaction.
Legal remedy against a decision of the Constitutional Court
There are no remedies against the decisions of the Constitutional Court. However, this does not apply should there be a decision by a body of an international organization established for the purposes of the implementation of a treaty that is binding on the Slovak Republic, which gives rise to an obligation to the Slovak Republic to re-examine in proceedings before the Constitutional Court an already-issued decision by the Constitutional Court.