The Constitutional Court can:
Examine your complaint about a decision or other interference of public bodies that violates your human rights
This means that you can only complain about a decision, proceeding or other factual action or measure of public authorities if you believe that it violates your human rights because it is contrary to the Constitution or binding human rights international treaty. The court will only examine your complaint if you exhausted all other available legal remedies.
If your complaint is accepted, the court will determine whether the public authority`s decision or action you are complaining about violated your human rights. If the court concludes that there was a violation of your rights, it can revoke decision or other interference of courts or state institutions.
Moreover, if the Constitutional Court upholds the constitutional complaint, it may:
- order the institution who violated the complainant's human rights to act in due manner
- return the case for further proceedings
- prohibit the continuation of a violation of the complainant's rights
- order the institution who violated the complainant's rights to restore the situation prior to their violation
The Constitutional Court can grant you an adequate financial satisfaction for a violation of your rights, if it declared that a certain decision or action has violated your rights. The aim of satisfaction is not to compensate damage, but rather to sanction public body that violated constitutional rights and basic freedoms.
If there is an illegal decision or other action of public authority, you may apply for compensation of damage by proceeding prescribed by the Act on Liability for Damage Caused in the Exercise of Public Power.
The Constitutional Court cannot:
The Constitutional Court can only carry out those tasks which it is allowed to do under the Constitution. It has very specific functions and it does not have the same power to review specific disputes as higher courts in Slovakia. Therefore, it cannot:
- directly change decisions of courts or state institutions
- re-examine the evidence of national court cases
- punish state officials or private individuals
The Court is not able to declare particular legal provision no longer be in force based on your individual complaint. There is a discussion to allow the Constitutional Court to initiate such a proceeding if it comes to a conclusion that individual complaint evidences conflict of some legal provision with a higher law or the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. Currently, 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, Ombudsperson, etc.