Essay

Constitutional Law Essay about Dutch constitutional review

Name: Constitutional Law Essay about Dutch constitutional review
SKU: doc_2159003
Rating: 5.00 (1 reviews)
Author: florisprins81

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Tilburg University (UVT)

The document is an essay, which I wrote last year about Dutch Constitutional Review for the final essay assignment for Constitutional Law. The essay is an example of writing an excellent essay and it was graded with a 9,2.

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Type Essay
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constitutional law
constitutional review
dutch constitutional review
dutch constitutional review

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Introduction

This academic paper will discuss the prohibition of constitutional review in the

Netherlands. In the introduction, it will be explained what its basis in the law is, what it

means and what the effects are. Then it will be discussed how questions of constitutionality

of Acts of Parliament are solved in the Dutch constitutional system. Next, the system of

constitutional review in Germany and the United States will be discussed. Lastly, I will give

advice to the Minister of the Interior and of kingdom Relations for an amendment of the

Dutch Constitution.

In this paper, the word ‘law’ means an entire law, or a part thereof, approved by

Parliament and enacted by the administration. The word ‘government’ is used for the

combined three branches of government. The word ‘administration’ means the executive

branch of government in this paper.

First, the basis of the prohibition of constitutional review by courts is Article 120 of

the Dutch Constitution. It states: ‘The constitutionality of Acts of Parliament and treaties

shall not be reviewed by the courts.’ 1 The article means that Acts of Parliament and treaties

cannot be reviewed by courts whatsoever in any instance. Lower legal rules and

government policy, however, can be reviewed against the constitutionality by courts. In

practice, the article means that unconstitutional laws or treaties must be carried out, even

if they conflict with the Constitution. This might seem strange since the Constitution is

higher in the hierarchy of legal rules. Changing the Constitution needs a supermajority in

Parliament of 2/3rd of the parliamentarians, while changing the law only needs half of the

parliamentarians. The idea behind article 120 is that the legislative branch and the

administration are responsible for the interpretation of the Constitution. When there are

different possible interpretations of the Constitution, not the judge, but the legislature and

the administration have the last say.2

1
Grondwet 1815, art 120.
2
Leenknegt and Hirsch Ballin, Korte Uitleg van de Grondwet (Wolters Kluwer 2014) 273; A.D. Belinfante and
others, Beginselen van het Nederlands Staatsrecht (Wolters Kluwer 2015) 215-216; (A.J. Nieuwenhuis and M. den
Heijer and A.W. Hins, Hoofdstukken Grondrechten (Ars Aequi Libri 2017) 53.

, Floris Prins
SNR: 2070985

On top of that, this article has been interpreted quite broadly by Dutch courts. In

1961, the highest court ruled that even the used procedure when the law was passed could

not be reviewed.3 For example, whether there actually was a majority in Parliament when

the chair said so. Another case where the broad interpretation prevailed was a case about

the Statute of the kingdom.4 The Statute is the overarching constitution of the Kingdom of

the Netherlands. The Constitution is only applicable in the European part of the Kingdom.

The statute does not say anything about the possibility of constitutional review. In the

absence of ‘the text of the Statute or the official explanation or the history of its creation’ 5

that unambiguously point out that constitutional review is allowed by courts, the status

quo of no constitutional review by courts must be continued.6

3
HR 27 January 1961, ECLI:NL:HR:1961:AG2059.
4
Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden 1954.
5
HR 14 April 1989, ECLI:NL:HR:1989:AD5725, para 4.2.
6
HR 14 April 1989, ECLI:NL:HR:1989:AD5725.

1

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