Constitutional Law / Droit constitutionnel
Slovakia / Slovaquie
Erik Láštic
Assistant Professor, Political Science Department, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
This constitutional update on Slovakia deals with the local direct democracy in the Slovak constitutional system. It provides a legal overview of the local democracy instruments, their development and local democracy experience so far. It analyzes Constitutional Court’s decisions that provided for clearer usage of local direct democracy by forcing local authorities to guarantee a fair review process. It argues that local direct democracy is a subject of an inconsistent legal development, with no systematic effort being present while amending local democracy instruments. The result is a national legislature’s ability to restrict the direct democracy on local level in one year, while introducing a new tool for citizens in another, in both cases without extensive discussion on reasons for such amendments.
