A review upon the ‘Amicus curiae brief of the Venice Commission on the admissibility of a referendum
A review upon the ‘Amicus curiae brief of the Venice Commission on the admissibility of a referendum

Summary/Abstract: A review upon the ‘Amicus curiae brief of the Venice Commission on the admissibility of a referendum to abrogate the constitutional amendments of the Republic of Albania Constitution’ The amendments upon the Constitution of Albania of April 2008 were hugely criticized by a fraction of the political elites, nevertheless in the same time the public opinion was of the idea that the amendments themselves do make drastic changes to the current Albanian Constitution, thus the people only can decide on such issue. In addition, the demand from a group of people for a referendum where the people would be directly asked whether they accept the amendments of the constitution was initiated. At that juncture, the Constitutional Court of Albania was asked to say whether a referendum on the amendments made to the Constitution is constitutionally legal. The Constitutional Court of Albania referred this question to the Venice Commission, by asking the latter to give a professional opinion on the admissibility of a referendum to abrogate the constitutional amendments of April 2008. The opinion of Venice Commission was negative in front of the admissibility of the referendum as a way for judging the constitutional amendments undertaken upon the constitution. In this paper, I argue that the opinion of the Venice Commission, delivered for this case, lacked general democratic principles and showed technical negligence.

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