Organisation

From the point of view of its internal organizational responsibilities, the Constitutional Court must appoint its own President and Vice-President, draw up the internal regulations needed for it to work properly, approve its annual budget proposal, decide the schedule of its ordinary sessions at the beginning of each year, and fulfill any other responsibilities that the law may lay upon it (Article 36 of the LTC).

The Justices of the Constitutional Court elect their own President and Vice-President by secret ballot, without prior discussion or debate. If there are no existing President and Vice-President, the session is chaired by the oldest Justice and the secretary’s role is performed by the youngest one. For a President to be elected he must receive at least 9 votes, while the Vice-President must receive at least 8 (Articles 37 and 38 of the LTC).

The President performs various kinds of function: he represents the Court and is responsible for its relations with other public bodies and authorities; he receives both nominations and declarations of relinquishment of candidature for President of the Republic, and chairs the assemblies that determine the result of the elections for the Presidency and the European Parliament; he chairs the sessions of the Court, convenes extraordinary sessions, directs the Court’s proceedings, and determines the results of votes; he presides over the distribution of cases, signs correspondence, orders the issue of certificates, and organizes and posts the table of appeals and cases that are ready to be heard during each session, when he must give priority to those referred to in Article 43(3) and (5), as well as to those in which personal rights, freedoms and guarantees are at stake; each year he organizes the shift system under which hearings are maintained during the Justices’ holidays (after first consulting his colleagues in conference); he superintends the Court’s management and administration, as well as its secretarial and support services; he appoints and installs the Court’s staff and holds disciplinary authority over them (Article 39 of the LTC); and lastly, he fulfils any other responsibilities which may be placed upon him by law or be delegated to him by the Court.

The Vice-President stands in for the President when the latter is absent or is ineligible to perform his functions, he engages in  such other official acts as the President may delegate to him, and he assists the President in the performance of his functions, particularly by presiding over one of the sections to which the President does not belong [Article 39(2) of the LTC].

Under its internal regulatory powers the Court has already instituted various regulations designed to ensure that its work goes smoothly. Some of the most important include those concerning the procedures of the plenary session and the individual sections, the notification and publication of decisions, and the use of the Court’s library and bibliographical and jurisprudential archive.

The Court’s own autonomous financial and budget system is laid down by Articles 47-A et sequitur of the LTC.

The Constitutional Court’s Administrative Board is made up of the President, two Justices, the Secretary-General of the Court, and the head of the correspondence and accounts section. Its functions particularly include current financial management and drawing up the draft budget (for approval by the Court, submission to the Government, and then forwarding to the Assembly of the Republic (Article 47-A of the LTC).

The organization of the Constitutional Court’s staff is laid down by Executive Law no. 545/99 of 14 December 1999. The staff is composed of the Secretary-General, the judicial secretariat and the support services.

With the exception of the different Offices, the staff of the Constitutional Court comes under the direction of the Secretary-General, who is in turn superintended by the President of the Court.