Oversight of War Powers
Parliamentary control of war powers can either be direct or indirect:
Indirect control or oversight refers to the participation of Parliament in the general defence policy (parliamentary debate, defence or security or investigative committees, approval of the budget as a whole or control of military contracts).
These instruments usually are within the remit of the parliamentary powers of the constitution or may be regulated in more detail in the Standing Orders of the parliaments or special legislation.[1044]Direct control refers to the possibility of the democratically elected organ to participate in the decision-making process of the executive or control a posteriori the military decisions taken by Government/President. Even the latter is a form of (weaker) participation because it may lead to the revocation, modification or substitution of the military operations taken.
The overall picture of parliamentary (co-)participation is rather diffuse when taking into account the constitutional provisions without taking account of the subconstitutional laws, regulations or conventions. As the main object here are the normative basis and limitations of the constitutional text itself, we mainly limit the review to the constitutional rules and partly refer for more information to the well drafted Report of the Venice Commission on the “Democratic Control of the Armed Forces” (concerning the member states of the Council of Europe) already quoted.[1045] Any kind of ranking is avoided.
Table 15.2 mainly covers the constitutionally regulated (or guaranteed) participation of the Parliament either a priori, a posteriori or both.
15.6