The Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic (in Slovak Ústavný súd Slovenskej republiky) is an independent court which reviews the constitutionality and lawfulness of different laws and regulations in Slovakia and decides on individual complaints on human rights violations. It works on the basis of the Constitution and the Act on the Constitutional Court.
The Court has jurisdiction over various legal issues, including e.g. election complaints, competence disputes between higher state authorities, disputes on compliance of referendum with the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, etc. However, the two main powers are:
- deciding on the compliance of lower legal force norms with higher legal force norms and
- deciding on individual complaints on violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The Court may declare laws or regulations invalid if it determines that they conflict with a higher law or the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. Such a dispute may only be initialised by persons precisely designated by the Constitution, e.g. other national court, President of the Republic, Attorney General, Group of Members of Parliament, Ombudsman, etc. Individuals (natural or legal persons) cannot apply to this so called abstract constitutional control.
You can only apply to the Constitutional Court if you believe that a certain decision, proceeding or other factual action or measure of public authority violates those human rights which are laid out in the Constitution of the Slovak Republic or in a binding international treaty.
The decisions of the Constitutional Court are binding and they cannot be appealed. However, if you are not satisfied with its decision, you may apply to the European Court of Human Rights or other international quasi-judicial bodies, such as the UN Human Rights Committee.