Gruda: Proposed changes limit the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Chamber in The Hague

PDK MP Përparim Gruda said the proposed amendments to the Law on the Specialist Court would strip the Specialized Chamber of the Constitutional Court in The Hague of the authority to review the constitutionality of the law. According to him, this review may be carried out only by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, in its regular composition in Pristina.

Gruda was responding to discussions that, after the amendments are adopted, the law could be referred to the Specialized Chamber in The Hague and annulled by it. He explained that the proposed bill expressly excludes such jurisdiction, regardless of the form of constitutional review.

To explain the basis for this provision, the MP referred to Amendment No. 24 to the Constitution. According to him, the amendment provides for a Specialized Chamber of the Constitutional Court composed of three (3) international judges, appointed alongside the judges referred to in Article 114 (1). This Chamber rules exclusively on constitutional referrals under Article 113 when they relate to the Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, in accordance with the special law. Gruda stressed that the constitutional provision makes its jurisdiction conditional on that law.

He explained that Article 23 of the draft law limits the jurisdiction of the Chamber in The Hague to constitutional referrals arising from decisions, orders or judgments of the Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office. According to him, the same article excludes its jurisdiction over the abstract (preliminary), concrete and incidental review of the constitutionality of laws or Law No. 05/L-053.

Gruda added that Article 23 leaves the review of the constitutionality of this law to the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo, in its regular composition in Pristina and in accordance with Article 113 of the Constitution. The same applies to laws that amend, supplement or repeal Law No. 05/L-053.

According to the MP, the Chamber in The Hague is not a separate constitutional court, distinct from the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, but a chamber with special jurisdiction. For this reason, under the proposed amendments, it would not be able to review or annul the law; constitutional review of acts of the Assembly, including these amendments, would remain with the Constitutional Court in Pristina.