Nonjudicial constitutional interpretation: The Netherlands

The Netherlands merits attention as one of the shrinking number of countries that continue to resist assigning principal responsibility to the courts for ensuring constitutional supremacy. Responsibility for evaluating the constitutionality of legislation is instead entrusted to both houses of parliament, ministerial bureaucracies, the Council of State, quasi-autonomous entities, and civil society as well as the courts. A case study of the Netherlands yields several important insights into the practice of constitutional interpretation.First, judicial review of legislation is not essential to t... Mehr ...