Procedure before the Constitutional Court

1. Introduction

        The procedure before the Constitutional Court is essentially written and adversarial. The rules of procedure concerning actions for annulment and preliminary questions are largely the same, except of course as regards the way in which cases are referred and the effects of the Court’s judgments.

        The procedure before the Court is regulated by the special Act of 6 January 1989 and by the guidelines of the Court on procedure. These texts can be found on this website under the heading “Basic texts” (only in Dutch and French).

        As a rule, each case is assigned to a panel of seven judges, according to a complex rotation system. The first judge of each linguistic group, appointed for the case, acts as reporting judge. The full Court can combine cases that relate to the same challenged provision which the Court is asked to rule on in one and the same judgment.

        In order to avoid an overload of work, a screening procedure has been put in place to deal with certain cases in summary proceedings. Cases which are manifestly inadmissible or fall outside the jurisdiction of the Court may be dismissed by a ‘restricted chamber’ composed of the president and the two reporting judges. Actions that are manifestly unfounded, preliminary questions that evidently call for a negative reply, and cases that can be settled with a ‘judgment of instant reply’ (owing to the nature of the case or the relatively straightforward nature of the problems raised in the case), may be settled (by an ordinary bench) after a written procedure in which essentially only the applicants or the parties in the action before the referring court are involved. The authorities that are normally informed automatically of all cases are not involved in this preliminary procedure, except when the reporting judges suggest in their conclusions that the Court deliver a judgment establishing that the Constitution has been violated by the challenged regulation.

2. Investigation

Except when the screening procedure is applied, it is announced in the Moniteur belge that a

case has been brought before the Court. The applications may be consulted at the court registry during a thirty-day period following that announcement. The various legislative assemblies, the Council of Ministers and the governments of the communities and regions receive separate notification, as do the parties in lower court proceedings in referrals for preliminary rulings. Written submissions (statements) may then be made to the Court and supporting evidence lodged as appropriate within a specified time limit. Third parties may also declare their interest in the case in writing after publication of the above-mentioned notice. Afterwards, all parties having made written submissions have a short time in which to lodge a written reply in the form of a statement of reply. In cases concerning actions for annulment, the statement of reply of the applicant can still be responded to with a statement of rejoinder.         The parties have access, in the registry, to the case file containing all documents and procedural records.

        The Court itself is empowered to initiate extensive investigatory measures for the purpose of obtaining further evidence and to hear the parties or other individuals and agencies.

        After the time has expired necessary for the exchanging of statements and for the investigations by the reporting judges and their legal secretaries, the Court considers whether the case is ready for hearing. In the so-called ‘preparation order’, the time of the hearing is fixed and any questions are set forth. All parties that lodged a statement are notified thereof and receive a written report by the reporting judges in which, where appropriate, attention is drawn to the questions that might still be put to them.

3. Hearing

At a public hearing, one of the judges reports on the case. The second reporting judge, from the other linguistic group, may issue a supplementary report. All parties that lodged written submissions may also make oral pleadings (in Dutch, French or German, with simultaneous interpretation), either personally or with the assistance of a lawyer.

4. Judgment

	After the case has been deliberated on, the Court rules by ordinary majority vote. In the event of a tie (if the full Court is in session), the presiding judge has the casting vote. The deliberations are secret. No provision has been made for the delivery of concurring or dissenting opinions.         The judgments of the Court are drafted and pronounced by the presiding judges in public session in Dutch and in French. Furthermore, judgments in actions for annulment and in cases that were instituted in German are drafted and pronounced in German.
	They are published (in excerpt form) in all three languages in the Moniteur belge and (in full) in Dutch and in French on the website of the Court.         The Court also takes care of the publication of its judgments in paper format in an official collection and communicates a copy of the judgments to the tribunals on request.
Last updated : 9 May 2007.