Resumen de European Constitutional Courts and Transitions to Democracy

Catarina Santos Botelho

• The book European Constitutional Courts and Transitions to Democracy reflects upon the role of constitutional justice in the transitions from authoritarian regimes to democratic systems and makes a call to refine the lens of transitional studies. Francesco Biagi is undoubtedly right when he asserts that “defeating the dogma of parliamentary supremacy was by no means an easy task.”1 The establishment of constitutional courts after World War II derived from the failure of the legislative branch to defend people’s rights, the absence of effective constitutional justice systems, and the lack of trust in the ordinary courts, which had been too deferential to the previous authoritarian regime.

  Moving along the three waves of democratic transition that took place in Europe in the twentieth century, Biagi selects Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic to develop his micro-comparative study. The book provides the reader with a historical and constitutional perspective of three generations of European constitutional courts, which made a clean break from the previous autocratic regime. The actions carried out by constitutional courts during the transition processes were crucial to ensure not only a formal, but also a substantive, transition to democracy. Even if these constitutional courts were initially perceived as outsiders, they soon achieved full legitimation by bluntly declaring the normativity and superiority of the constitution.