The Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic During the Emergencies

Abstract

Abstract Most constitutional systems count with the eventualities of unexpected circumstances threatening the constitutional order. These constitutions allow a constitutional regime’s partial or complete transformation into a constitutional emergency. Before 2020, Slovakia had almost no experience with such situations. The paper aspires to unveil a line of Slovak emergency constitutional considerations through the lenses of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic. For that reason, the article critically analyses the methodological approach of the Slovak Constitutional Court towards the declaration of emergencies. The COVID pandemic brought the first opportunity to the Constitutional Court to review the unilateral power of the government to declare one of the constitutional emergencies, namely the state of crisis. The Constitutional Court did not opt for an active intervention with the governmental powers. Interestingly, it intervened assertively with the power to fight the pandemic when the state of crisis was over. The paper argues that the results of this recent constitutional experience remain methodologically unpersuasive and do not represent a helpful guide for the future.