Republic of Moldova 1994 Constitution (reviewed 2016)

TITLE V. CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Article 134. Statute

1. Constitutional Court shall be the sole body of constitutional jurisdiction in the Republic of Moldova.
2. Constitutional Court shall be independent of any other public authority and shall obey only the Constitution.
3. Constitutional Court shall guarantee the supremacy of the Constitution, shall ascertain the enforcement of the principle of separation of the State power into the legislature, executive and judiciary, and it shall guarantee the responsibility of the State towards the citizen and of the citizen towards the State.

Article 135. Powers

1. The Constitutional Court shall:
   1. exercise, upon appeal, the constitutionality review over laws and decisions of the Parliament, Presidential decrees, decisions and ordinances of the Government, as well as the international treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party;
   2. give the interpretation of the Constitution;
   3. formulate its position on initiatives aimed at revising the Constitution;
   4. confirm the results of republican referenda;
   5. confirm the results of parliamentary and presidential elections in the Republic of Moldova;
   6. ascertain the circumstances justifying the dissolution of the Parliament, the suspension from office of the President of the Republic of Moldova or the interim office of the President, as well as the impossibility of the President of the Republic of Moldova to fully exercise his/her functional duties for more than 60 days;
   7. solve the pleas of unconstitutionality of legal acts, as claimed by the Supreme Court of Justice;
   8. decide over matters dealing with the constitutionality of a party.
2. The Constitutional Court shall carry out its activity on the initiative brought forward by the subjects provided for by the Law on the Constitutional Court.

Article 136. Structure

1. The Constitutional Court shall consist of 6 judges appointed for a 6-year term of office.
2. Two judges shall be appointed by the Parliament, two – by the Government and the remaining two – by the Superior Council of Magistrates
3. The judges of the Constitutional Court shall elect its President by secret ballot.

Article 137. Independence

For the tenure of their mandate the judges of the Constitutional Court shall be irremovable, independent and shall obey only the Constitution.

Article 138. Appointment conditions

The judges of the Constitutional Court must possess outstanding judicial knowledge, high professional competence and a length of service of at least 15 years in legal field, didactic or scientific activity in law.

Article 139. Incompatibilities

The office of the Constitutional Court judge shall be incompatible with holding of any other remunerated public or private position, except for education and research activity.

Article 140. Judgments of the Constitutional Court

1. Laws and other normative acts or parts thereof become null and void from the moment that the Constitutional Court passes the appropriate judgment to that effect.
2. The judgments of the Constitutional Court are final and cannot be appealed against.