Judicial Review of the Constitutionality of International Treaties

Abstract

Judicial oversight of the constitutionality of international treaties is a topic worthy of study, especially in Libya, given the absence of constitutional regulation for this type of oversight, which has led the Supreme Court (the Constitutional Chamber) to argue that it has no jurisdiction to consider acts of sovereignty, most notably international treaties. What the Supreme Court is doing today to harmonize domestic and international law is nothing but an effort that should be commended in the absence of a constitutional text specifying the status of international law in domestic law, and a mechanism for constitutional oversight, whether previous or subsequent. Judicial oversight of the constitutionality of international treaties is a real guarantee of the supremacy of the constitution and its respect, and at the same time respecting and implementing international treaties in accordance with the principle of good faith. I have addressed many problems in this research through comparison with the constitutional judicial rulings in other countries and their constitutional texts, which varied in determining the rank of international treaties, while the constitutional text in Libya was absent specifying their rank, which forced the Supreme Court to clarify this and approved the supremacy of international treaties over domestic law. This research also addressed the extent of the jurisdiction of the national judiciary to monitor the constitutionality of international treaties and the aspects of this monitoring and some other problems related to the subject of the study.