Constitutional International Conference Court 3 of the Republic of Slovenia 25 Years 4 Foreword by the Editor he independence of the Republic of Slovenia, attained in June 1991, was inextricably linked with the decision to establish a democratic state governed by the rule of law 5 T and based on respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. In the years fol- lowing our independence, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia played an important role in the protection of these values. The Court celebrated the 25th anniversary of its functioning within the independent state with a solemn ceremony and the organi- sation of an international conference, focused on the role and position of constitutional courts. These Conference Proceedings contain important insights from the ceremony and the international conference. The first part of the Conference Proceedings contains a collection of the ceremonial speeches delivered at the ceremony on 22 June 2016 at Brdo Castle. The ceremony was attended by high-ranking representatives of the Slovene state and guests from the Court of Justice of the European Union as well as a number of foreign constitutional courts and supreme courts, which also perform constitutional review. The published speeches include addresses by Mag. Miroslav Mozetič, President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, Prof. Dr Koen Lenaerts, President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Mr George Papuash- vili, President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia and Chairman of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts, and Mr Borut Pahor, President of the Republic of Slovenia. The second part of the Conference Proceedings contains the contributions presented at the international conference that took place on 23 June 2016 in Bled. We are grateful to the Presi- dent of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Presidents, Vice Presidents, and for- mer Presidents of constitutional courts who responded to the invitation of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia and gave excellent presentations illustrating their views on constitutional review from constitutional and European law perspectives. This part of the Conference Proceedings is introduced by the special contribution of Assist. Prof. Dr Aleš No- vak, Head of the Department for Legal Theory and Sociology of Law at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. He is in charge of several subjects from the field of the theory of the state and legal theory and has kindly accepted the invitation of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia to contribute his account of the work of the international conference as well as his view on the role of constitutional review in general. We are grateful for his work as the aca- demic view of a younger colleague who dedicated a part of his career to the study of constitu- tional review entails a valuable contribution to these Conference Proceedings. I would also like to seize this opportunity and, in the name of the judges of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia and on my own behalf, once again thank our colleagues and friends from other constitutional and supreme courts who responded to our invitation and joined us in the celebration of this noteworthy anniversary of our Court’s functioning. We were delighted that this solemn occasion, similarly as our past meetings, provided us with a new opportunity to exchange our views and ideas regarding the mission of ensuring the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms entrusted to each of us in our 6 own court. 7 8 Solemn Ceremony Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia and the Independence of the Republic of Slovenia Opening Speech IV by Mag. Miroslav Mozetič 9 President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia Opening Speech XII by Dr Koen Lenaerts President of the Court of Justice of the European Union Opening Speech XVI by George Papuashvili President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia and Chairman of the Conference of the European Constitutional Courts Keynote Speech XX by Borut Pahor President of the Republic of Slovenia International Conference Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia Assist. Prof. Dr Aleš Novak 10 39 Faculty of Law, Univesity of Ljubljana The Many Precious Gifts of a “Secular Papacy”: An Overview of the International Conference Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia Prof. Dr Gerhart Holzinger 61 President of the Constitutional Court of Austria The Origins and Development of Constitutional Jurisdiction in Austria Prof. Dr Marta Cartabia 69 Vice President of the Constitutional Court of Italy Of Bridges and Walls: The “Italian Style” of Constitutional Adjudication Prof. Dr Maria Lúcia Amaral 85 Vice President of the Portuguese Constitutional Court The Portuguese Constitutional Court: Thirty Years of Existence Prof. Dr André Alen 91 Former President, now Judge of the Belgian Constitutional Court, Willem Verrijdt law clerk at the Belgian Constitutional Court The Rule of Law in the Case Law of the Belgian Constitutional Court: History and Challenges Prof. Dr Koen Lenaerts 121 President of the Court of Justice of the European Union Mutual Trust, Mutual Recognition and the Protection of Fundamental Rights in the Case Law of the Court of Justice of the European Union Prof. Dr Ferdinand Kirchhof 129 Vice President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany The Evolution of the Relationship between German Constitutional Law and European Union Law 11 Prof. Dr Dainius Žalimas 139 President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania The Openness of the Constitution to International Law as an Element of the Principle of the Rule of Law Dr Pavel Rychetský 153 President of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic The Role of the Constitutional Court in Strengthening the Rule of Law in the Czech Republic Prof. Dr Péter Paczolay 161 Former President of the Constitutional Court of Hungary The Hungarian Constitutional Court’s Efforts for Legal Certainty Prof. Dr Ernest Petrič 169 Former President, now Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia The Role of Constitutional Courts in the Implementation of the Rule of Law in States in Transition Dr Jadranka Sovdat 181 Vice President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia The Constitution Between Politics and Law: Limits of Constitutional Review 12 Solemn Ceremony Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia I and the Independence of the Republic of Slovenia BRDO, 22 JUNE 2016 II CMYK foto CMYK III foto IVOpening speech by Mag. Miroslav Mozetič President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia “New challenges and V new trials undoubtedly lie before our society as well as before the Constitutional Court.” Dear President of the Republic, Mr Borut Pahor, President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Mr Koen Lenaerts, Chairman of the Conference of European Constitutional Courts and President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia, Mr George Papuashvili, Presidents and judges of the invited constitutional courts, Former judges of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, Representatives of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, Representatives of religious communities, Advisors of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, and Distinguished guests, he 25 years of the functioning of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slo- VI venia are inextricably linked with the same anniversary of the independent state T of Slovenia. On 25 June 1991, the Basic Constitutional Charter on the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Slovenia and the Special Declaration of Independence were adopted and proclaimed. This date also marks the birth of our new state and the com- pletion of the long process of its gradual establishment as well as the implementation of the will that the Slovene nation and the residents of the Republic of Slovenia expressed in the Plebiscite to establish for their future lives an independent and sovereign state that will no longer be part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In December of the same year a new Constitution was adopted. As is evident from the Basic Constitutional Charter, the long-held wish, which the Plebiscite transformed into a clearly expressed demand of the people for an independent state, was first and foremost a call for a democratic state governed by the rule of law in which human rights and fundamental freedoms would be respected and protected and a call for the establishment of a democratic constitutional order that would put human dignity and the spiritual, political, and economic freedom of individuals into the foreground. In Decision No. U-I-109/10 the Constitutional Court stressed that “[h]uman dignity is at the centre of the constitutional order of the Republic of Slovenia. Its ethical and constitutional significance already proceeds from the Basic Constitutional Charter, which is not only the constitutional foundation of Slovene statehood, as also certain principles that demonstrate the fundamental legal and constitutional quality of the new independent and sovereign state are outlined therein. By adopting the independence documents not only the fundamental relationship entailing state sovereignty between the Republic of Slovenia and the [Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] was severed, but there was also a fracture with the fundamen- tal value concept of the constitutional order. Differently than the former [Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia], the Republic of Slovenia is a state governed by the rule of law whose constitutional order proceeds from the principle of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Human dignity is the fundamental value which permeates the entire legal order and therefore it also has an objective significance in the functioning of authority not only in individual proceedings but also when adopting regulations.” These are the premises, i.e.