Contents
8.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................... 156
8.2 Transparency of Ex Ante Constitutional Review: Arguments For and Against.............
1598.3 Analysis of the Transparency of Ex Ante Constitutional Review in Different Legal
Systems...................................................................................................................................... 161
8.3.1 Finland....................................................................................................................... 161
8.3.2 Sweden......................................................................................................................... 168
8.3.3 France......................................................................................................................... 175
8.4 Analysis.................................................................................................................................... 184
8.5 Conclusions.............................................................................................................................. 187
References.......................................................................................................................................... 192
Abstract Ex ante constitutional review is carried out prior to a law’s entry into force. While judicial in character, it is a politically charged process for various reasons. The body responsible for this task works in close proximity with the legislative process, and the outcome of the review may have considerable political effects. However, the review is based on legal rather than political evaluation. Against this background, the public transparency of ex ante review is challenging in many ways, and there is a fear that increasing the transparency of legislative processes would steer the focus from the decision-makers to the advisors whose impartiality and independence would be endangered.
Transparency might also make political decision-making harder. At the same time, transparency of the legislative process may be regarded as an important aspect of promoting public scrutiny and meeting the standards to be expected of democratic states that respect the rule of law. The aim of this chapter is to ascertain the level of transparency of ex ante constitutional review in the legal systems of three countries: Finland, Sweden and France. Based on the analysis of these three systems significant commonalities and differences are identified, and possible reasons to explain the findings are presented.M. Dahlberg (B)
University of Eastern Finland Law School, Academy of Finland, Joensuu, Finland e-mail: maija.dahlberg@uef.fi
© T.M.C. ASSER PRESS and the authors 2022
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J. de Poorter et al. (eds.), European Yearbook of Constitutional Law 2021, European Yearbook of Constitutional Law 3, https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 94-6265-535- 5_8
Keywords Comparison • constitutional argumentation • ex ante constitutional review • Finland • France • public access to documents • Sweden • transparency
8.1