And there are three. Of the 13 judges of the Constitutional Court (TC), three whose terms of office have expired – but remain in office. The vice president was already in this situation Pedro Machete (from October 1, 2021) and Lino Ribeiro (June 20, 2022). Since the 6th, the chairman of the TC, Jan-Peter Caupers, got into this situation. The three magistrates have one characteristic in common: they were co-opted to the TC by the remaining ten judges (who were elected by the Assembly of the Republic).
“The President of the Constitutional Court, João Caupers, after having fulfilled his mandate, will assume the functions until his replacement, respecting the procedure provided for by law and thus guaranteeing the necessary stability for the functioning of the Constitutional Court .”
All serve a single nine-year term, a term already expired in the Machete, Ribeiro and Caupers cases. But none of them intend to resign until the elected ten have chosen their replacements. And so the terms can be extended indefinitely.
Caupers does not intend to leave on his own, it was confirmed to DN in a note from his office. “The President of the Constitutional Court, João Caupers, after having fulfilled his mandate, will assume the functions until his replacement, respecting the procedure provided for by law and thus guaranteeing the necessary stability for the functioning of the Constitutional Court .” The same note recalls the legal framework: “According to Article 21 of the Law on the Constitutional Court, “the judges of the Constitutional Court are appointed for a period of nine years from the date of their inauguration and terminate their duties with the inauguration of the judge designated to the respective position”.””. Further, “the co-option process is the sole responsibility of the judges elected by the Assembly of the Republic”.
However, these do not move. The situation came to a standstill in May 2022, when the ten judges chosen by the AR disagreed to elect university professor António Almeida Costa, author of ultra-conservative theories on issues such as abortion.
Almeida Costa was supposed to replace Vice President Pedro Machete, but was not elected. Machete stayed. Now it is up to the TC’s “oldest” judge (of those elected by the AR) to internally initiate the process of replacing the three co-opted judges with expired terms. this judge is Jose Joao Abrantes (58 years old), who came to the court elected by parliament in July 2020 on the advice of the PS.
revision changes
During the ongoing constitutional review process, proposals that change the functioning of the Constitutional Court (TC) will be discussed. Here are some of those proposals.
Rights of delegates
Article 281 of the Constitution of the Republic provides that one-tenth of the deputies of the Assembly of the Republic (that is, at least 33) may ask the TC to verify the constitutionality or illegality of a law, its decisions being “general be binding”. force”. It was precisely because of the use of this mechanism that the TC unanimously rejected the metadata law. Now the Liberal Initiative wants this right to be extended to a parliamentary group (and the IL has only eight deputies).
elected judges
The Constitutional Court consists of 13 judges: ten elected by the Assembly of the Republic, which in turn elects the remaining three (hence called co-opted judges). This is regulated in more than one article, namely Article 163, which defines Parliament’s powers vis-à-vis other bodies. Chega proposes that the number of people elected by parliament be reduced from ten to eight, increasing the number of co-opted judges from three to five.
chairman AR
The proposal for a constitutional revision submitted by Chega reflects the conflict that the party’s parliamentary group has maintained during the legislature with the President of the Assembly of the Republic. Socialist Augusto Silva Silva has already refused to schedule the Chega diplomas, arguing they are unconstitutional. Now Chega is proposing a new right for parliamentary groups: “Appeal to the Constitutional Court if they consider that their constitutional rights are being violated by the President of the Assembly of the Republic.” The proposal is rejected.
regional laws
Iniciativa Liberal and PSD argue that one more should be added to the powers of the President of the Republic with regard to the Constitutional Court: that of encouraging preventive inspection of the constitutionality of laws emanating from regional parliaments (Madeira and the Azores) .
Note: News changed at 5:05 PM on March 21. The paragraph stating that the criminal Costa Andrade unilaterally resigned from his mandate as a judge in February 2021 completed his four-and-a-half-year term as president of the TC. In fact, Costa Andrade only left the TC when he was substituted.
Source: DN
