New act on Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic

A new act No. 314/2018 Coll. on the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic and on the amendment of certain acts (“Constitutional Court Act”), annulling the Act No. 38/1993 Coll. on the organisation of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, on proceedings before it and on the status of its judges as amended, entered into force.

This has occurred in two stages. In the first stage, sections regulating the appointment of judges of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic and a section regulating organizational and personal aspects of the functioning of the Constitutional Court and court advisors through the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic entered into force on 15 November 2018. Other provisions entered into force on 1 March 2019.

The experience so far enabled to identify several problems concerning the existing legal regulation. However, the situation required the adoption of either another major amendment with numerous and extensive changes to the existing legal rules or an entirely new law. The latter of these alternatives seemed to be the most appropriate.

A reason for the adoption of the new Constitutional Court Act was especially the improvement of clarity and unambiguity of the normative text and inclusion of some substantive changes into the act, reacting to the experience of the Constitutional Court so far. At the same time, the law also reflects a submitted amendment to the constitution.