1. Date and context of establishment

On July 29, 1994 the Parliament adopted the new Constitution. Thus, the foundation of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova, its structure and powers, as well as its place amongst the public authorities were provided.

On February 23, 1995 the first composition of the Constitutional Court started its activity.

On June 16, 1995 the Parliament adopted the Code of Constitutional Jurisdiction, in conformity with which the Court delivers its judgments, decisions and advisory opinions.

2. Position in the hierarchy of law courts

The Constitutional Court does not represent a branch in the hierarchy of law courts of the State. It is the sole body of constitutional jurisdiction, autonomous and independent from the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The task of the Constitutional Court is to guarantee the supremacy of the Constitution, to ensure the principle of separation of State powers into the legislative, executive and judicial branches, to guarantee the observance of the State's responsibility towards the citizen and the citizen's responsibility towards the State. Upon request, the Constitutional Court interprets the Constitution and undertakes the review of constitutionality of the Parliament's laws and decisions, the decrees of the President of the Republic of Moldova and the acts of the Government.

I. Statutory foundations

• Constitution of the Republic of Moldova: Art. 134-140, 141.para.2, Chapter VII "Final and Transitory Provisions".
• Law on the Constitutional Court no. 317-XIII of 13.12.1994 with the inserted amendments by the laws no. 917-XIII of 11.07.1996; no. 1221-XIII of 26.06.1997; no. 18-XIV of 14.05.1998; no. 1137-XV of 14.06.2002; no. 1157-XV of 21.06.2002; no. 1392-XV of 26.09.2002; no. 1570-XV of 20.12.2002.
• Code of the Constitutional Jurisdiction no. 502-XIII of 16.06.1995; amended by the laws no. 917-XIII of 11.07.1996; no. 1221-XIII of 26.06.1997; no. 18-XIV of 14.05.1998; no. 174-XV of 18.05.2001; no. 1157-XV of 21.06.2002; no. 1570-XV of 20.12.2002.

II. Composition and organisation

1. Composition

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova is composed of 6 judges, appointed for a 6-year term of office. Two of them are appointed by the Parliament, two by the Government, while the two remaining - by the Supreme Council of the Magistracy.

Pursuant to the constitutional provisions, any person who possesses outstanding legal knowledge, high professional competence and a length of service of at least 15 years in legal field, as well as within legal education or scientific activity may be appointed to the function of the Constitutional Court judge.

The Law on the Constitutional Court stipulates an age limit for the appointment as a judge of the Constitutional Court, which is 70.

According to the Constitution, for the duration of their term of office the Constitutional Court judges are irremovable, independent and obey only the Constitution.

The mandate of the judge may cease and the vacancy of the position is declared only in case of:

• mandate expiration
• resignation
• demise
• mandate withdrawal, in case of :

a) an incapacity to fulfil the functional duties due to health reasons;

b) an infringement of the oath and office duties;

c) the conviction by a law court for committing an offence;

d) an incompatibility.

The cessation of the mandate and the vacancy of the position are exclusively declared by the Constitutional Court.

Membership is incompatible with any other public or private remunerated office, except for a teaching or scientific activity. The legal provisions also stipulate that the judges of the Constitutional Court are compelled to give up any activity in political parties or any other public organisation.

After taking the oath in front of the authorities that appointed them, the judges of the Constitutional Court elect its President by secret ballot.

2. Procedure

The procedure of the Court is governed by the Constitution, the Law on the Constitutional Court and the Code of Constitutional Jurisdiction.

Under the Constitution and the Law on the Constitutional Court, the following subjects may petition the Constitutional Court:

• President of the Republic of Moldova;
• Government;
• Ministry of Justice;
• Supreme Court of Justice;
• Court of Audit;
• Prosecutor-General;
• Member of the Parliament;
• Parliamentary group;
• Ombudsman;
• National Assembly of Gagauzia (Gagauz Yeri) - in cases of exercising the review of constitutionality over the laws, regulations and decisions of the Parliament, decrees of the President of the Republic of Moldova, decisions and orders of the Government, as well as the international treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party, which infringes upon the powers of Gagauzia.

The Constitutional Court exercises the constitutional jurisdiction only upon appeal by the subjects expressly provided for by the Law on the Constitutional Court.

Individual citizens have no right to petition the Constitutional Court and the Constitutional Court may not examine cases of its own motion either. However, individual citizens have access to the Constitutional Court through the Supreme Court of Justice in case of rising by the latter of the plea of unconstitutionality established during the trial. They may also refer the Court through an ombudsman and other subjects entitled to address the Constitutional Court.

Appeals are lodged with the Constitutional Court in written form, in the official State language, and submitted to its President with no charge for the procedure.

The examination of the appeal consists of 2 stages: the preliminary examination and the examination of the issue on merits.

If the subject matter referred to the Constitutional Court meets the requirements provided for by the jurisdictional procedure, in order to make a preliminary examination, the President of the Court arranges for the appeal to be forwarded to one or more judges of the Court, to a Secretariat subdivision or to an assistant judge. The report regarding the preliminary examination must be presented not later than 60 days after the registration date of the application. In case where a large amount of investigation is necessary, the time limit can be extended by 30 days. After the preliminary examination of the appeal, the rapporteur judges submit the report to the Court. The Court plenum decides on the admissibility of the appeal for examination on merits and its inclusion in the agenda in order to be examined at the public session. Whether the appeal is deemed admissible, the President of the Court designates a rapporteur judge and fixes the deadline for the appeal examination and report presentation.

The rapporteur judge (or judges) prepares the file for the examination, remits the copies of the appeal and the annexed documents to the other party, studies the other party's written objections to the referral, solicits the materials related to the case from the relevant institutions, orders the carrying out of the expert opinions and requests the advisory opinion of the Scientific-Consultative Council concerning the examined issue where appropriate and takes any other measures if necessary.

When the file is made up, the rapporteur judge informs the judges of the Court and the participants in the proceedings of the place, date and time of the session not later than 10 days before the session itself and remits to the judges and parties in the proceedings the copy of the appeal.

The parties may appear before the Constitutional Court either in person or through their representatives. The representatives of a party can be lawyers, specialists in the relevant field and other persons. The parties may have several representatives. The representatives' scope of authorization and rights are indicated in the letter of attorney.

Throughout proceedings the parties have equal procedural rights and access to all documents of the case file.

The Court can request and obtain additional information and documents necessary for the examination of the case. The Constitutional Court's requests and summonses are binding on all public authorities, officials, institutions and organisations. Non-fulfilment of the Court's requests is punishable by law.

The constitutional jurisdiction operates in plenary and public sessions under the adversarial principle. The quorum of the Court plenum is constituted of two-thirds of the Court judges. Each application is dealt with at a single hearing. The Court cannot examine another appeal until the judgment concerning the current application has been pronounced or the case is suspended.

Where publicity could threaten the interests of State and the public order, the Constitutional Court declares that the hearing will be held in camera.

After the examination of the case, the Court deliberates in the consultation room. The deliberation is held in private and the judges have no right to divulge the content of deliberations.

While exercising its powers, the Constitutional Court delivers judgments, decisions and issues advisory opinions. Where the issue is settled on merits, the judgment is handed down or an advisory opinion is issued and in case of the default to resolve the issue on merits, a decision is adopted.

The advisory opinions are issued on cases related to:

• the initiatives aimed at revising the Constitution;
• the circumstances which may justify the dissolution of the Parliament, the suspension from office of the President of the Republic of Moldova, the interim office of the President or the impossibility of the President of the Republic of Moldova to fully exercise its powers for more than 60 days;
• the matters dealing with the constitutionality of parties etc.

Court rulings are adopted by a majority of the judges' votes. Judges may not refrain from the deliberations and the voting. The Chairman of the session will be the last to vote.Where there is a parity of votes, the President has the casting vote.

Judgments and advisory opinions are adopted on behalf of the Republic of Moldova. The judgments of the Constitutional Court cannot have retrospective effect, are final and cannot be appealed against.

Laws and other legal acts or some of their provisions, acknowledged as unconstitutional, become null and void and are not applicable for the future from the moment that the Constitutional Court passes the appropriate judgment to that effect.

Reconsideration of the Court judgment or advisory opinion is carried out only on the Court's initiative through a decision adopted with the majority of the judges' votes.

A judge who disagrees with the delivered judgment or issued opinion can set out his/her viewpoint in written form. The judgments and advisory opinions of the Constitutional Court, together with the separate dissenting opinions if there are any, are published in "Monitorul Oficial" (Official Gazette) of the Republic of Moldova not later than 10 days following the date of their delivery.

3. Organisation

The Secretariat of the Constitutional Court is responsible for providing assistance in all informational, organisational, scientific and other such matters for the preliminary appeal examination and file preparation, as well as for the organization of citizens' hearing. The Secretariat regulation rules, its organization chart and staffing schedules are adopted by the Constitutional Court itself.

The management of the Secretariat is entrusted to a chief, who is responsible for all the administrative work.

The Secretariat consists of the following departments: the Chancellery, the International Relations Department, the Legislation's Systematisation Department, the Legislative Department, the Editorial Department, the Financial-Administrative Department and the Documentation and Data Processing Department.

The President of the Constitutional Court is in charge of the general supervision of the Secretariat, the appointment and dismissal of the Secretariat staff, as well as the management of the Court budget resources.

The Constitutional Court has its own budget constituting an integral part of the state budget. The Court budget is established each year by the Parliament within the State budget.

The Scientific-Consultative Council also functions within the Constitutional Court.

III. Powers

In pursuance to Articles 135 and 141.2 of the Constitution and according to the procedures established by the Code of Constitutional Jurisdiction, the Constitutional Court:

• undertakes, upon application, the constitutional review of laws and regulations of the Parliament, Presidential decrees, decisions and orders of the Government, as well as international treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party. This is ex post facto review. Any normative act, as well as any international treaty to which the Republic of Moldova is a party is considered to be constitutional until the moment when its unconstitutionality is acknowledged while exercising the constitutional jurisdiction. Only normative acts adopted prior to the entrance into force of the new Constitution, August 27, 1994, are subject to the constitutional review.

The Constitutional Court considers only the issues falling within its jurisdiction. If in the examination process the questions arise over which other bodies have competence, the Court forwards the materials to them. The Constitutional Court ascertains for itself the ambit of its competence. While undertaken the review of the contested normative act, the Court can deliver judgments concerning other normative acts whose constitutionality, completely or partially, depends on the constitutionality of the contested act.

During 1995-2002 about 210 normative acts of the Parliament, the President of the Republic of Moldova and the Government had been subject to the review of constitutionality.

Constitutional review of international treaties was not undertaken. The Constitutional Court also:

• gives the interpretation of the Constitution. Within the period of 1995-2002, the Court interpreted articles under the Constitution 30 times. The majority of interpretations are referred to the competence of public authorities and the observance of the principle of separation and collaboration of State powers;
• formulates its position on initiatives aiming at revising the Constitution. In accordance with the Constitution the subjects empowered to initiate the revision of the Constitution can submit drafts of constitutional laws only if they are accompanied by the Constitutional Court's advisory opinion, adopted through a vote by no less than 4 judges. Though, the Court's advisory opinions related to the draft are not binding upon the Parliament, in practice the latter is guided by them. The Court has expressed its opinion on 18 initiatives regarding the amendment of the Constitution so far. · confirms the results of the republican referenda;
• confirms the results of the parliamentary and presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova. The Court confirmed 4 times the results of the election of the President of the Republic of Moldova and of the Parliament;
• ascertains the circumstances justifying the dissolution of the Parliament, the suspension from office of the President of the Republic of Moldova or the interim office of the President, as well as the impossibility of the President of the Republic of Moldova to fully exercise the functional duties for more than 60 days. The Parliament had been dissolved in 2000;
• resolves the pleas of unconstitutionality of judicial acts, as claimed by the Supreme Court of Justice;
• decides on matters relating to the constitutionality of political parties. To date there have been no such cases in the practice of the constitutional review.

In order to guarantee the judges' irremovability, the Court is the only authority empowered to revoke the judge's immunity and to release them from office.

The Constitution expressly determines the powers of the Constitutional Court, which can be neither increased nor limited through a law. The Constitutional Court prerogatives can be modified only if the Constitution is amended accordingly.

IV. Practice

Within the period of activity from February 23, 1995 to December 31, 2002 the Constitutional Court considered 267 petitions from those 550 registered:

• 210 referrals regarding the constitutionality of the Parliament's laws and decisions, Presidential decrees and acts of the Government;
• 30 applications concerning the interpretation of the Constitution;
• 18 appeals related to the laws on the amendment of the Constitution and other such matters.

Analysis of the appeals lodged with the Constitutional Court demonstrates that the Republic of Moldova, a young state, faces problems on the ascertaining of the principle of separation and collaboration of powers in the State and the observance of fundamental human rights and freedoms.

V. Publications

Collection of judgments and decisions: 1995 - 1996; 1997; 1998; 1999; 2000 and 2001.