Constitutional Council or Constitutional Court?
In the next session, the National Assembly will discuss the new Constitution - the amendment to the 1992 Constitution. The Editorial Board of the Draft Amendment to the Constitution plans to send to the National Assembly Deputies a monograph on the model of the Constitutional Council of some countries in the world. The Editorial Board's intention is to provide additional documents so that the National Assembly Deputies have more basis to consider and reflect before choosing a form of constitutional protection for our country's Constitution.
(Baonghean) -In the next session, the National Assembly will discuss the new Constitution - the amendment to the 1992 Constitution. The Editorial Board of the Draft Amendment to the Constitution plans to send to the National Assembly Deputies a monograph on the model of the Constitutional Council of some countries in the world. The Editorial Board's intention is to provide additional documents so that the National Assembly Deputies have more basis to consider and reflect before choosing a form of constitutional protection for our country's Constitution.
Currently, 8% of countries in the world (mainly developing countries) choose the Constitutional Council model, 92% of countries establish a Constitutional Court to review and decide on unconstitutional acts. Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan, who participated in compiling this monograph, said: "The countries that established the Constitutional Council all have a very late tradition of constitutional protection. Most of them have gone through periods of poor democracy and rule of law, and the political context did not create the necessary need for a constitutional body.
Therefore, the Constitutional Council is a safe political choice for leaders in the context of political transition that has not created enough conditions for the establishment of the Constitutional Court. And thus, leaders can intervene more easily in the organization and operation of this agency. Establishing a Constitutional Council helps countries still have a constitutional agency in name but is easier to direct and control. Thus, the Constitutional Council in countries often has more of a political nature than a judicial nature. This is a forum for both reconciliation and compromise between political forces of countries, and has more or less jurisdiction to adjudicate constitutional disputes.
With its all-encompassing political nature, it is difficult for this body to make definitive judgments on unconstitutional cases. However, the Constitutions of these countries have been and are advocating for reforms to transform the Constitutional Council from a politically-charged body to an independent body with jurisdiction. In other words, the Constitutional Council, regardless of the country, is considered the initial stage, the first step on the path to forming a Constitutional Court in the democratization process to strictly control unconstitutional acts occurring in that country. It is often argued that between the Constitutional Council and the Constitutional Court, the choice of which model depends on the "political institutions and practices" of each country.
So, now, which model should we choose to suit our “political institutions and practices”? The Constitutional Council or the Constitutional Court?
We know that constitutional rights belong to the people, but specifically in the coming time, the opinions of the National Assembly Deputies are very important.
In the upcoming National Assembly meeting, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Quyen, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Judicial Committee, said that he would speak out against the Constitutional Council model to recommend discussing the Constitutional Court model. Mr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Head of the Draft Constitutional Amendment Editorial Board, affirmed: "Scientists note that the Constitutional Court model is more suitable in the long term than the Constitutional Council model." Many delegates in the drafting board said: "It is necessary to clarify the reasons why we choose to follow a model that accounts for only 8% of the countries in the world, and at the same time, it is necessary to consider the next reform steps in Vietnam to build an effective constitutional mechanism."
Thus, we see that the trend of choosing the constitutional protection model through the Constitutional Court is receiving great attention from the National Assembly's drafting committee for the amendment of the Constitution. The Constitutional Amendment Editorial Board is also continuing to revise and perfect the document to submit to the upcoming National Assembly session. The debate on this issue is very open. The drafting committee is waiting for comments from the entire population...
Litmus
