Constitutional reforms 'not immediately effective' - ex-prosecutor general responds to justice minister's remark

10:01 • 26.06.20

The justice minister's approach insisting on the termination of three members of the Constitutional Court and the appointment of Hrayr Tovmasyan, the CC chairman, a judge, is based upon the old text of our Constitution, a former prosecutor general said Thursday, dismissing the allegations that the government-backed constitutional reforms will be immediately effective starting from June 26.

In an interview with Tert.am, Gevorg Kostanyan noted that no fundamental constitutional legal acts had been previously revised to bring the necessary norms in line with the recently adopted amendments.

Mr. Kostanyan, the judges of the Constitutional Court say the constitutional change is not in essence enough for terminating their authority, which is to say their powers are not suspended. What [Minister of Justice] Rustam Badasyan says, however, is that the constitutional norms are immediately effective, i.e. - those norms directly enter into effect even without changes in the law. But they are going to rapidly enforce amendments. What procedures does the Constitution envisage?

The Constitution has a supreme legal force, but its norms are not immediately effective. While under the 2005 Constitution, it was clearly defined that constitutional norms enter immediately into effect, that clause is no longer in place, i.e. - it was eliminated under the 2015 Constitution. The immediate effect of purely constitutional norms applies only and exclusively to the fundamental human and civilian rights and liberties. That is to say, the constitutional norms are effective only with respect to Chapter 2 of the Constitution.

This accounts also for the fact that Section 3, Article 167 of the Constitution prescribes the procedure for the formation and the activity of the Constitutional Court only under the Constitution and the Law on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia. There is absolutely no indication that those procedures are prescribed only by the Constitution. And that's the most important thing to mention.

The minister of justice says they will rapidly undertake the amendments to the law, which is to say they are informed of the norm in question. Are there any other regulations here in terms of effectuating the changes?

That the minister of justice accepts the fact, saying in his statement that the laws must be brought in line with the Constitution within the shortest possible timeframes means that he, in point of fact, accepts also the reality that the laws dealing with the Constitutional Court's formation must be immediately brought into compliance with the Constitution to later allow for terminating the authority of CC judges.

What then accounts for Badasyan's statement that the laws must be brought in line with the Constitution tomorrow [June 26]?

That's accounted exclusively by the fact that Baadasyan found the constitutional changes directly effective. Hence the statement does not originally have any legal or constitutional grounds. The justice minister's approach is based on the old text of the Constitution.

news.view.author Betghehem Arabyan