6533b85cfe1ef96bd12bc5de

RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Ivorian Constitutional Council and the supremacy of the Constitution. : study in light of his decisions and opinions

subject

description

Ivorian constitutional justice, in its current form, is the fruit of the democratization movement launched on the continent from the 1990s. But if elsewhere the exercise of constitutional review immediately became an essential instrument in the effectiveness of the Constitution and the advent of the rule of law, in Côte d'Ivoire, the guarantee of the the Constitution’s supremacy has evolved continuously at an oscillatory rhythm. The constitutionality check is first expressed through a strategy of small steps. The constitutional judge's choice of a narrow interpretation of his attributions produces a daring case law geared towards legitimizing the executive power and its governance. Subsequently, with the advent of the second Republic from the year 2000, the constitutional jurisdiction is relatively more active. But despite the extension of the right of referral to citizens through the preliminary question, constitutional justice remains insensitive to the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms. Its dynamism manifests itself especially when the Constitution is confronted to the Political Agreements, mobilized for the resolution of the military political crisis. The office of the constitutional judge is then revealed as the defense of the constitutional order in danger or the regime embodying it. Here again there is the strong irradiation of the executive power in an unbalanced political system converging, like rivers in the river, all the institutions in the sense of the majesty of the constitutional Pontiff. Moreover, the preponderance of electoral disputes and the crises it provokes, annihilates, almost systematically, the progress of the case law that can give credibility to constitutional justice. In this context, the guarantee of the supremacy of the Constitution remains at an embryonic stage, marked by the seal of precariousness imposed by perverted constitutional practices and chronic political instability.