Journal of the Charles University Law Faculty
Zdeněk Červínek, Palacký University Faculty of Law, Olomouc
Constitutional Review Standards in Practice of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic
Jurisprudence 4/2015 Section: Articles Page: 21-29
Keywords: constitutional review, methodology, proportionality test, extreme disproportionality exclusion test, rational basis test, Czech Constitutional Court, deference, intensity of review
Abstract: This paper analyzes the methodology of constitutional review used by the Czech Constitutional Court. This methodology is divided into three types of standards: the proportionality test, the extreme disproportionality exclusion test, and the rational basis test. These standards create a comprehensive three-component system of constitutional review tests, where individual tests or relations between them are not fully defined and stable. This system evolves on the contrary. We claim that the relations between these tests lack clear criteria to distinguish between extreme disproportionality exclusion test and rational basis test in the practice of the Constitutional Court. This leads to conclusion that they should be unified under one deferential standard of constitutional review.
