Constitutional Courts
The design of specialized constitutional courts — how they differ from ordinary supreme courts, how judges are selected, and how they protect constitutional order.
Two Models of Constitutional Adjudication
There are two dominant models for enforcing constitutional supremacy. The American model allows any court to rule on constitutional questions — a district court can declare a federal law unconstitutional, subject to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. Constitutional questions arise incidentally, in the course of resolving ordinary disputes.
The European model, inspired by Hans Kelsen and adopted after World War II, creates a specialized constitutional court — a separate institution whose sole job is to assess the constitutionality of legislation. Germany's Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), established in 1951, is the archetype. If an ordinary German court encounters a constitutional question, it must refer it to the Constitutional Court rather than deciding it independently.