Max Planck Foundation holds workshop in attendance of two judges of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
From 27 to 29 March, the Max Planck Foundation accompanied by two judges from the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany conducted a workshop in Bamako, Mali on the topic of “Constitutional courts and electoral litigation”.
The workshop was formally opened by the President of the Constitutional Court of Mali, Manassa Danioko, who highlighted the importance and sensitivity of the topic considering that several elections, including presidential elections, will be held in Mali in 2018 and 2019.
While the first day of the workshop was dedicated to the general standards of electoral law, the second day focused on the organisation and jurisdiction of the different actors in electoral matters as well as the burden and standard of proof in electoral litigation. On the third day the discussions focused on the impact of irregularities on the results of the vote. All topics were discussed and analysed from a comparative legal perspective. The workshop included several presentations by Judges Baya Berthé and Bamassa Sissoko, judges at the Constitutional Court of Mali as well as Dr. Sibylle Kessal-Wulf and Prof. Dr. Doris König, judges at the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, who shared their expertise on their respective electoral systems and pertinent case law of their respective Courts.
The workshop is part of a series of capacity building workshops for the members of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Mali. The cooperation between the Constitutional Court of Mali and the Max Planck Foundation is based on a Memorandum of Understanding which was signed in February 2017. The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.