The impact of populism on constitutional interpretation in the EU Member States

Szente, Zoltán and Gárdos-Orosz, Fruzsina (2022) The impact of populism on constitutional interpretation in the EU Member States. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 26 (7). pp. 1141-1159. ISSN 1364-2987

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Abstract

The birth and spread of the term ‘populist constitutionalism’ shows that one of the distinctive features of modern populism is that it has specific constitutional ambitions insofar as it seeks to achieve its political goals through constitutional means. The constitutional ambitions of populist politicians, which are considered by many scholars as a feature of modern populism, often make it inevitable for courts to respond, in the course of constitutional review, to challenges to traditional constitutional values and institutions. Courts can respond to these claims in different ways. For example, they can engage in an activist stance, resisting the attempts that endanger the established constitutional order, they can defer to the changing constitutional policy of the political branches, or, possibly, they can try to keep their distance from political struggles. The study, based on the results of our comparative international research, examines how populism influences the methods of interpretation in the jurisprudence of constitutional courts and other relevant high courts,whether they have developed new interpretative instruments, or have used the classical ways of constitutional interpretation when facing populist aspirations. The article contributes to the present-day scholarly discourse on the effects of populism on constitutional justice in Europe.

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