Workshop with Constitutional Court of Jordan on Direct Individual Access

Max Planck Foundation holds workshop on direct individual access to the Constitutional Court of Jordan

On 19-20 June 2019, the Foundation held a technical workshop on “Direct Individual Access to the Constitutional Court” with the Constitutional Court of Jordan. The Foundation’s Country Manager for Jordan welcomed the participants and introduced the workshop, highlighting that the topic of this workshop was conceived as a result of particular interest shown by the President of the Court, HE Judge Hisham al-Tal and other Judges of the Court.

The workshop is a timely follow-up to the latest amendment to the Law of the Constitutional Court, which reduced the fees for submitting a challenge to the constitutionality of laws and regulations in Jordan to fifty Jordanian Dinars, in an attempt to further facilitate access to the Court.

The technical content of the workshop focused on the possibilities and options for direct access to the Constitutional Court of Jordan by individuals, based on the experiences and practice of other Courts, within and outside of the MENA region (India, South Africa and Kuwait, amongst others), that had modified their legal frameworks to allow for direct access by individuals for constitutional complaints. Discussions also focused on the procedural rules, rules for standing, and possible mechanisms and processes for managing high numbers of complaints and challenges and related aspects of the rule of law.

The workshops with the Constitutional Court of Jordan are one component of the Foundation’s project on “Raising Technical Capacity and Technical Knowledge of Judges of the Constitutional Court (Jordan and Palestine) and Judges of Ordinary Courts in Jordan (2017-2019)”, which is generously supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.