Constitutional Review by the Judiciary in the Netherlands: A Bridge Too Far?

Author:

van der Schyff Gerhard

Abstract

One could be forgiven for thinking that constitutional review by the judiciary is invariably part of modern constitutionalism. Gone are the days that constitutions contained provisions that prevented the courts from testing the constitutionality of legislation, such as section 59 of South Africa's now repealed Constitution of 1961 that forbade the courts from inquiring into or pronouncing on the validity of legislation. It has come to be accepted in many quarters that a constitution presupposes judicial review in some form or another in gauging the integrity of legislation, instead of only relying on legislative wisdom as before. An attitude that echoes the views expressed inMarbury v. Madisonby Chief Justice Marshall of the United States Supreme Court, that by its very nature a written constitution implies judicial control. However, the Constitution of the Netherlands proves to be an exception in this regard, as section 120 states emphatically that:The constitutionality of Acts of Parliament and treaties shall not be reviewed by the courts.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Subject

Law

Reference74 articles.

1. Why else would the Halsema Proposal resemble treaty review in so many ways? For example, supporting the review of civil and political rights, as opposed to socio-economic rights, as well as favoring decentralized review by the courts.

2. On this, see Gerhard van der Schyff, Rethinking the Justification for Constitutional Review of Legislation in the Netherlands, in Europa en de toekomst van de nationale wetgever: Liber amicorum PHilip Eijlander 129 (R.A.J. van Gestel & J. van Schooten eds., 2008); Gerhard van der Schyff, Waarom het wetsvoorstel Halsema tekort schiet: Mythes rondom het verdragsargument, Nederlands Juristenblad 2408 (2009); Jit Peters & Geerten Boogaard, De myhes van Van der Schyff over het initiatiefwetsvoorstel-Halsema, Nederlands Juristenblad 2628 (2009); Joseph Fleuren, Waarom het voorstel-Halsema superieur is, Nederlands Juristenblad 2630 (2009); Gerhard van der Schyff, Over een interpretatierichtsnoer en mythes, Nederlands Juristenblad 2632 (2009).

3. E.g. Hoge Raad, 16 May 1986, NJ 1987, 251, where the Supreme Court stressed that courts had to be careful of value judgments as this has to be left to the legislature. It continued by opining that the courts must be “terughoudend” or reluctant to exercise their powers of review.

4. See Evert Alkema, The Effects of the European Convention on Human Rights and Other International Human Rights Instruments on the Netherlands Legal Order, in The Dynamics of the Protection of Human Rights in Europe: Essays in Honour of Henry G. Schermers, 1 (Rick Lawson & Matthijs de Blois eds., vol. III, 1994) who charts this evolution.

5. In his foreword to J.R. Stellinga, De Grondwet systematisch gerangschikt (1950).

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