Moldovan top court to verify also laws adopted before Constitution's elaboration

Chisinau, 10 October /MOLDPRES/ - The Constitutional Court of Moldova (CCM) can extend its prerogative to carry out the constitutional control also over the laws passed before 24 August 1994, when the Fundamental Law was adopted, under a draft on amendment of the laws on the Constitutional Court and the one on constitutional jurisdiction code, approved by the cabinet today.  

The draft sees the abrogation of the paragraph 2 of the Article 31 from the Law on Constitutional Court, which stipulates that “only the normative acts adopted following the entrance into force of the Constitution adopted on 29 July 1994 are subjected to constitutionality control.”

CCM has earlier declared unconstitutional more legislative provisions, including the aforementioned paragraph. The Constitutional Court noted that, after the adoption of the Constitution, no transition procedure had been envisaged, under which decision-makers could ascertain the non-constitutionality of the laws passed ahead of the date of 27 August 1994 and take them out of the normative order in force. Yet, following the adoption of the constitutional jurisdiction code in June 1995, the parliament stipulated, inter alia, that only the normative acts passed after the entrance into force of Moldova’s Constitution can be subjected to constitutionality control. Thus, the situation of the legislation before the adoption of the Constitution was not settled.   

Under a CCM ruling from 2018, as long as a legislative text adopted before the entrance into force of the Constitution is not abrogated, the Constitutional Court can exercise its constitutionality control over it. Thus, CCM’s competences are extended to all laws in force.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)