Symposium
Details
The regional Experts’ Conference “Constitutional Review and Separation of Powers”, took place from 25-26 October 2009 in Kempinski Hotel -Khan Palace Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The Rule of Law Programme Asia organized this conference in cooperation with the Mongolian Constitutional Court for countries from all over Asia. The conference that takes place every year presents a forum to elaborate and discuss current topics and challenges for constitutional jurisdiction in Asia. This year participating judges came from Cambodia, Indonesia, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand and Uzbekistan. There were also experts from the Venice Commission, Council of Europe and from China. Hon. Justice Prof. Dr. Mellinghoff attended to the conference, too, as representative of the German Federal Constitutional Court.
The opening speech was given by Hon. Justice Prof. J. Byambardorj, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Mongolia. The first session then was held on the relation between constitutional review organs, governments and the ordinary judiciary. Participants discussed the role and task of a constitutional court in a democratic state under the rule in general, it’s balancing function between other government bodies and its interference in the domain of the government.
In the second session participants discussed the topic “Constitutional adjudication vis-à-vis the legislature”. Participants presented their own perspectives on how they see the role of constitutional courts in relation to Parliament as lawmaker representing the people. The opening speech of this session was given by Hon. Justice Prof. Dr. Mellinghoff who presented the German perspective and the long lasting jurisprudence developed by the FCC over 60 years.
In the third session on the second day participating courts was given the chance to present and discuss their important decisions in recent years. It was interesting to see how the different courts handle similar problems, for example electoral cases. Participants took the chance to discuss these cases more into depth.
Session four was dedicated to the establishment of an Asian Association of Constitutional Courts and equivalent organs, a project that took it’s beginning in the 2005 Conference in Mongolia.
The session started with a report given by the chairman of the Preparatory Committee, Hon. Justice Dong-Heub Lee, on the current status of the association and further procedures.
This presentation was followed by a short intervention by Dr. Duerr, Head of Constitutional Justice Devision, Venice Commission who reported on the cooperation between the Preparatory Committee and the Venice Commission and presented the proposed World Conference on Constitutional Justice.
After the session, participants enjoyed a cultural programme provided for by the Constitutional Court of Mongolia. At the same time they engaged in more personal exchanges about their work in general.
The conference gave deep impressions and we are looking forward to the next that will take place in Indonesia the coming year.
