Constitutional Court in the System of State Agencies. Powers of the Constitutional Court

1. Constitutional Court in the System of State Agencies

Being an agency carrying out the constitutional jurisdiction, the Court is independent of the legislative, executive and judiciary powers, it obeys only to the Constitution guaranteeing the supremacy of the Constitution, ensuring the principle of separation of state powers and the state responsibility to the citizen and of the citizen to the state. The Constitutional Court is an independent state constitutional agency, the primary function of which is the control of constitutionality of the regulatory acts and legal rules, which are contrary to the Constitution, and the Constitution interpretation. The Court operates under its own jurisdictions, based on the principles of independence, security of tenure, collegiality, legality and publicity. The Court has financial autonomy and its own budget, which is separate from the state budget. 

2. Powers of the Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court carries out an organizational, surveillance activity to draw the attention of the public authorities, which activity is subject to control, to eliminate the rules, which are contrary to the Constitution and to stop the enforcement of the regulatory act, but the right to modify or cancel it remains with the agency, which adopted it. The constitutionality control decisions are binding and final, making the regulatory act or its provisions unconstitutional. In this context, the Constitutional Court becomes a supreme "referee" in terms of "exclusive review of issues of law." 

Being the sole authority of constitutional jurisdiction, the Court exercises its powers under the art. 135 of the Constitution, the art. 4 of the Law on the Constitutional Court and the art. 4 of the Code of Constitutional Jurisdiction, it: 

· exercises on appeal the control of law constitutionality, regulations and decisions of the Parliament, the decrees of the President of the Republic of Moldova, the Government decisions and orders and the international treaties, which the Republic of Moldova is a party to; 

· interprets the Constitution;

· gives its opinion on the initiatives of Constitution review;

· confirms the results of national referendum;

· confirms the elections of the Parliament and the President of the Republic of Moldova, validates the mandates of deputies and of the President of the Republic of Moldova;

· ascertains the circumstances which justify the dissolution of the Parliament, the dismissal of the President of the Republic of Moldova, the interim office of President, the inability of the President of the Republic of Moldova to exercise his/her powers for more than 60 days;

· settles the exceptions of unconstitutionality of legal documents filed by the Supreme Court;

· decides on matters dealing with the constitutionality of a party.