CODICES

ARM-1997-2-002

a) Armenia / b) Constitutional Court / c)  / d) 19-05-1997 / e) DCC 56 / f) On the conformity of Article 17 of the Law of local elections with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia / g) Tegekagir (Official Gazette) / h) CODICES (English).

 

Keywords of the Systematic Thesaurus:

 
 
1.3.5.12

Constitutional Justice - Jurisdiction - The subject of review - Court decisions.

4.7.1

Institutions - Judicial bodies - Jurisdiction.

4.7.4.3

Institutions - Judicial bodies - Organisation - Prosecutors / State counsel.

4.7.4.3.1

Institutions - Judicial bodies - Organisation - Prosecutors / State counsel - Powers.

4.7.4.3.6

Institutions - Judicial bodies - Organisation - Prosecutors / State counsel - Status.

4.7.7

Institutions - Judicial bodies - Supreme court.

4.8.2

Institutions - Federalism, regionalism and local self-government - Regions and provinces.

4.8.4.1

Institutions - Federalism, regionalism and local self-government - Basic principles - Autonomy.

5.3.38

Fundamental Rights - Civil and political rights - Electoral rights.


Keywords of the alphabetical index:

 

Constitutionality, review / Law, electoral, infringement / Public Prosecutor, chief, power / Local self-government body, election.

 

Headnotes:

 

The Supreme Court must comply with the provisions of the Law on local elections and established precedents.

 

Summary:

 

Under Article 17 of the Law on elections for local self-governing bodies, judgments on local elections delivered by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Armenia sitting as a full Court are final and not subject to review. In other words, neither candidates in local elections nor state prosecutors may appeal against such judgments. In the case in question, on application by the Principal State Prosecutor, the presidency of the Supreme Court had suspended a judgment of the full Court finding that the elections in one of the districts of the capital had been illegal, and had given a decision contradicting that judgment.

 

In its decision of 19 May 1997, the Constitutional Court considered not only the conformity of the aforementioned law with the Constitution but also the relevant practice and case-law of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Armenia.

 

At the instigation of a communist deputy, 65 signatures were collected from members of the Armenian National Assembly (under the Constitution, a case may be brought before the Constitutional Court, provided that the signatures of at least a third of the deputies are collected; i.e. 64) and the Constitutional Court was asked to consider whether the restriction placed on the Principal State Prosecutor under Article 17 of the aforementioned law was constitutional.

 

For his part, the Principal State Prosecutor founded his case on [ENG-ARM-A-103] Article 103.5 of the Constitution which stipulates that the «Office of the Principal States Prosecutor shall appeal against the judgments, verdicts and decisions of the courts». He argued that this provision of the Constitution gave wide-ranging powers to the Principal State Prosecutor's Office which could not be restricted by any law.

 

Having found that the contested article was in conformity with the Constitution, the Constitutional Court held that the Principal State Prosecutor's action constituted a breach of the Law on local elections. The Constitutional Court dismissed the deputies' application.

 

Languages:

 

Armenian, Russian, English (translation by the Court)