Global Lessons Learned – Constitutional Courts, Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law

This paper is a look at the global trends with respect to constitutional courts. It touches on the following issues: (i) emerging international and regional consensus principles and models (ii) the rationale for creating Constitutional Courts, including the advantages and disadvantages of having such a court (iii) the composition of Constitutional Courts (iv) the jurisdiction of Constitutional Courts including: whether the court has preventative or ad hoc judicial review powers, and whether the court has abstract or concrete constitutional control (v) the contribution of Constitutional Courts to judicial independence, including the different relationships that can be crafted between the regular judiciary and the constitutional court (vi) the different types of standing available to bring a case to the Constitutional Court and (vii) the various means to ensure public access to information handled by the Constitutional Court. The paper also touches on the broader picture, discussing the role of constitutional courts within the power structure of a democratic state.