Supranational Constitutional Courts

Abstract

The paper seeks to identify, within the broader genus of international courts and tribunal, a typology of courts which can be defined as supranational constitutional courts. To this end, it suggests six criteria that ought to be used in order to differentiate within the broader family of international courts the species of courts which present a constitutional character. Specifically, the paper suggests that jurisdiction, powers of judicial review, subjectivization, constitutional hermeneutics, constitutional doctrines and effectiveness are conditions to define an international court as a supranational constitutional court. The paper examines the case of the European Court of Justice as a paradigmatic example of a supranational constitutional court and considers to what extent analogous features are emerging in other tribunals, including the European Court of Human Rights.

Keywords: International courts, supranational courts, constitutionalism, ECJ, ECtHR