Workshop with the Constitutional Court of Mali on individual indirect access
On 4 and 5 April 2019 the Foundation conducted a workshop with the Constitutional Court in Bamako, Mali on the topic of “Individual indirect access to the Constitutional Court: issues on filtering of applications and other practical questions related to the introduction of the new procedure”.
This workshop was the first one held under the renewed Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Constitutional Court and the Foundation in Bamako in February 2019.
The topic of the workshop – individual indirect access to the Constitutional Court – was chosen in consultation with the Court’s Scientific Committee in order to anticipate the possible introduction of this new procedure in the framework of the upcoming constitutional revision. This new procedure had already been foreseen in previous drafts for constitutional amendment. The aim is to allow individuals to challenge the constitutionality of a law in the course of judicial proceedings. The claim of unconstitutionality is then referred for judicial review to the Constitutional Court by the competent judge.
The first day of the workshop focused on the definition of substantive and procedural criteria for admission of a claim. The second day aimed at discussing a possible procedural framework in order to regulate the referral procedure between courts. The last session dealt with more practical and substantive questions that the Court might face should the new procedure be introduced, including issues of human resources and the procedural organisation of the hearings before the Court.
The cooperation between the Constitutional Court of Mali and the Foundation is part of the project “Support to the Constitutional Reform Process in Mali and Capacity-Building for the Constitutional Court of Mali”, which is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.