Constitutional Courts in Central and Eastern Europe and their Attitude towards European Integration

Abstract

In the first years after the fall of communism, constitutional courts in Central and Eastern Europe undertook a crucial role in the political, economic and social reforms of their respective countries. As in other European countries after the Second World War, these courts in CEE were seen as factors of democratization whose main task was the observance of constitutionalism and the rule of law. After the first years of judicial activism which were mainly related to internal reforms and fashioning of a new democratic system, these courts turned into important actors of the European integration process, by rendering landmark decisions related to the interaction between their national legal order and European law. This paper deals in particular with a series of decisions in the context of national law-European law relations, by paying specific attention to the reception by these courts of the principle of supremacy of European law. The main finding of this paper is that constitutional courts of CEE have taken quite an equilibrated stance towards European integration: generally speaking, their rhetoric is characterized by a Euro-friendly discourse in the pre-accession period which, after the enlargement was complemented by a set of controlimi generally derived from their own constitutions and well-established constitutional traditions.