Interaction of Arbitration and Constitutional Courts
pages 159 - 178
ABSTRACT:

This study intends to analyse the interaction between constitutional courts and commercial arbitration courts in the European context, with particular reference to the current situation and regulations in Romania. The analysis has as main coordinates the applicable regulatory developments and the constitutional review carried out upon notification by commercial arbitration courts, highlighting the jurisprudential benchmarks. The commercial arbitration courts have the possibility to notify the Constitutional Court for settlement of exceptions of unconstitutionality of laws and ordinances in cases brought before them. This was introduced during the 2003 revision of the Constitution of Romania. Thus, before that time we could only talk about how commercial arbitration courts were enshrined in the case-law of the Romanian Constitutional Court. After 2003, the analysis concerned the notifications addressed to the Constitutional Court by commercial arbitration courts, including international courts, as well as the procedural and substantive questions raised in those notifications. We refer specifically to the notification of the Constitutional Court by the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France and the resolutions thereof. The study is intended also as an invitation to reflect and debate on the solutions identified, and on the effects they produce. 

keywords
commercial arbitration court
constitutional court
constitutional review
effects of decisions of the Constitutional Court
about the authors

Petre Lazaroiu – currently holds the office of Judge of the Constitutional Court of Romania, an office he was appointed to in 2008. He is also Lecturer at the ‘Dimitrie Cantemir’ Christian University of Bucharest, where he is Coordinator of the Financial and Fiscal Law Course and the Banking and Financial Law Course.

e-mail: petre.lazaroiu@ccr.ro

Marieta Safta – is currently the First Assistant Magistrate of the Constitutional Court of Romania, an institution where she has been employed since 2003. Marieta Safta is also Lecturer within the ‘Titu Maiorescu’ University of Bucharest, where she is Coordinator of the Constitutional Law Course and the Political Institutions Course.

e-mail: marietasafta@yahoo.com