Venice Commission gives positive opinion on authorities' questions on the Constitutional Court

The Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Rustam Badasyan requested an opinion of the Venice Commission on three legal questions in the context of draft constitutional amendments concerning the mandate of the judges of the Constitutional Court on May 12. On 25-27 May 2020, the rapporteurs and the Secretariat of the Venice Commission, held a series of videoconference meetings with the representatives of the Constitutional Court, of three parliamentary factions including the opposition, with the Chairperson of the State and Legal Committee of the Parliament, with the Minister of Justice and the diplomatic community in Yerevan as well as representatives of civil society organisations, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Venice Commission.

''It should also be observed that the purpose of the current majority is not to alter these high democratic standards, by reversing and stepping back from the achievements of the 2015 reform and by introducing rules that would allow the majority to control the appointments. It appears, on the contrary, that the authorities’ objective is to ensure that the new provisions produce their effects and the composition of the Court reflects the democratic standards introduced by those provisions as soon as possible. This is a legitimate aim. The Commission acknowledges that, in context, the time period between the adoption of the amendments and their final implementation, which would take up to 20 years, is unusually and exceptionally long, and results in effectively frustrating the application of the 2015 amendments. '', reads the opinion of the Commission.

Referring to the Chairperson of the Court the Venice Commissio...