European or Universal Perspectives?
Established in the frame of the Council of Europe, the Venice Commission is increasingly gaining the position of an institution whose mandate is giving support to European integration.
The Commission is criticised because it is not coping with the geographical expansion of its membership and its prospects ‘for its further evolution into a body with a genuinely universal dimension to its activities’[374] These remarks do not take into consideration that, with the adoption of the revised Statute of the Commission, the link between this body and the Council of Europe was confirmed at the moment the door was opened to cooperation with states which are not Members of the Council of Europe.[375] Moreover, it is worth remembering that in the Opinion concerning the draft Constitution of the Republic of Tunisia, the Commission underlined the emphasis of the preamble of the draft on ‘the three pillars of the Statute of the Council of Europe, namely human rights, democracy and the rule of law’[376] Both these elements confirm the Eurocentric focus of the legal patrimony elaborated by the Commission. This does not mean that the Venice Commission is not in a position to take part in the universal spreading of the principles of constitutionalism. Nevertheless, the present European situation suggests focusing on the consolidation of the constitutional values in Europe while avoiding too ambitious a universal mission. The Commission’s final contribution to these results is the underpinning of the case law of the European judges insofar as its case-by-case monitoring approach allows a progressive enrichment of the actual European constitutional heritage. This is a perspective that cannot be devalued if we maintain the opinion that legal integration is a main factor of the European constitutional organisation.[377] It is not the first time in the history of Europe that the convergence of advice from professional and academic lawyers and the judgments of judges has enabled the difficulties encountered by the advent of a new legal order to be overcome.[378]
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