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CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

Source: CODICES

Decision 10/98 of 29 April 1998 (summary)

a) Bulgaria / b) Constitutional Court / c) / d) 29/04/1998 / e) 10/98 / f) / g) Darzhaven Vestnik (Official Gazette), 52, 08/05/1998 / h) CODICES (French).

Headnotes:

The Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria neither provides for nor explicitly prohibits the existence of a military court with the Supreme Court of Cassation or of military prosecutors with the Chief Prosecutor’s Office.

Summary:

The decision, which is based on [ENG-BUL-A-149] Article 149.1.1 of the Constitution, is a response to the Council of Ministers’ request for a binding interpretation of [ENG-BUL-A-119] Article 119.1 of the Constitution on whether the Constitution requires a military court to exist within the Supreme Court of Cassation and, in view of [ENG-BUL-A-126] Article 126.1 of the Constitution, military prosecutors within the Chief Prosecutor’s Office.

The Constitutional Court ruled that in the sense of [ENG-BUL-A-119] Article 119.1 of the Constitution the Supreme Court of Cassation shall act as a third instance of appeal for cases of the military courts and that there shall be no separate special unit (jury, division) to hear such cases. However, there is no obstacle to establishing such a unit, which may be instituted by law under [ENG-BUL-A-133] Article 133 of the Constitution.

The military prosecution section of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office has been instituted by law in the absence of a constitutional provision. Under [ENG-BUL-A-126] Article 126.1 of the Constitution, its existence is justified only if there is a military jury with the Supreme Court.

It lies within the legislator’s exclusive competence to assess whether the judicial power and the Department of Public Prosecutions need such structural units.