FOREWORD
The Venice Commission is now 30 years old and it is time to write the first volume of its memoirs - or, in other words, to assess the success of the principles it has developed, in order for more successes to take place in the future.
The Venice Commission started as a tool of emergency constitutional assistance in the time when constitutional developments took place overnight in Eastern Europe. Now changes are not so quick, and the Venice Commission has contributed to the dissemination of the values of the European constitutional heritage in hundreds of reports and opinions on national law, not to mention multilateral and bilateral seminars.
What are these values, or principles? How are they put into practice through international standards? Stemming from the constitutional traditions of Western Europe, how were they received in the rest of the continent and beyond? On paper, most of them are universal; and in real life? From a purely legal point of view, are they international law, and, if so, are they hard or soft law? Or, to be somewhat provocative, are they comparative law - if this is law?
All these questions are in the background of the book. It is not intended to answer them all, but, rather, to provide guidelines for reflection. The author, Professor Bartole, is particularly well placed for such an exercise. He has been one of most long-serving and active members of the Venice Commission, which he joined after its creation. He is therefore particularly well qualified to evaluate the progress made, but also the difficulties and the steps backwards which have occurred during its three decades. He has dealt with nearly all aspects of the work of the Commission, in particular in the fields of the organisation of the state, federalism, protection of minorities, ordinary and constitutional justice, referendums, fundamental rights and the rule of law.
Professor Bartole is therefore the right person to evaluate the contribution of the Venice Commission to constitutionalism in the world, with realism, not with complacency.
This book's contribution is particularly precious because it is not intended to give good or bad marks, but to see where the problems arise and their cause. This is, of course, essential to finding a solution. A solution which should not be uniform. The main principles are to be complied with, but the situation of each state in the field has to be taken into account. The European Court of Human Rights, and even national courts, especially in federal states, recognise a margin of appreciation to domestic, respectively federate, regional or local authorities. As a specialist of, inter alia, the federal and regional states, as well as of the protection of minorities, Professor Bartole will not deny this.
Despite its adolescence being long over, the Venice Commission is still young. For a long time, it has been, and still is, called upon to assess the progress - and, unfortunately, from time to time, the regression - of democracy through law in Europe and beyond. This is a perennial task, since our world is not expected to become perfect. All of its citizens, and not just members of international bodies or high-ranking public officials, are called upon to contribute to the implementation of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. This should be the main message to be retained from this contribution to the science of constitutional law.
Dr Gianni Buquicchio President of the Venice Commission