Constitutional Versus International Protection of Human Rights: Added Value or Redundancy? The Belgian Case, in the Light of the Advisory Practice of the Venice Commission

Abstract

This article addresses the role the national constitutions still can play in the protection of human rights, in a multi-layered legal order that increasingly emphasises the importance of the international and regional protection of human rights. It contains three parts. First, it examines, both from an international and European perspective and from a national constitutional perspective, the relative openness of both systems to each other. Then it turns to the not always entirely successful efforts in Belgium to harmonise the constitutional and the European and international protection of fundamental rights. Lastly, it looks at the advisory practice of the Venice Commission and raises the question: what is its position on the utility of constitutional protection for human rights when we see the proliferation of international and European protections?