Constitutional Court of Portugal

12 Reviewing constitutionality As we have seen, the Constitutional Court’s core competence is to review legal norms in order to determine whether they are in conformity with the Constitution. The control exercised by the Portuguese Constitutional Court is a normative one. This means that the Court considers whether legal norms (especially those contained in laws and executive laws) are in conformity with the Constitution. The Court does not judge concrete cases. TYPES OF REVIEW PROCEDURE Constitutionality can be reviewed using a number of different forms of procedure. – An abstract review is conducted regardless of the application of the norm in question in any concrete case. – A concrete review looks at the application of a given norm to a concrete case. Unconstitutionality Article 277 of the Constitution: “Norms that contravene the provisions of the Constitution or the principles enshrined therein are unconstitutional”.