One more step against "Parliamentary Self-governance" Commentary on the Judgement of the European Court of Human Rights GK v. Belgium, of May 21, 2019

Abstract

In the judgment GK c. Belgium the European Court of Human Rights once again addresses national legal systems that confer the competence post-electoral disputes and verification of credentials to parliamentary assemblies without including any subsequent instance of judicial review. Very few European countries have this traditional liberal prerogative, typical of nineteenth-century parliamentarism. Examining the validity of the resignation of a Belgian senator serves as a pretext to focus on the deficiencies registered in the parliamentary procedure used, dominated by the enormous discretion recognized to the senate and the absence of guarantees against arbitrariness. The Court’s judgement, without innovating excessively, allows confirming the line that had been started with previous decisions, in the depth of the procedural approach of the rights included in Article 3 of the Additional Protocol. The case raised in GK c. Belgium offers interest as it is one of the few issues that escapes strictly electoral law and belongs to parliamentary law, with the added originality that the Belgian system belongs to the pure parliamentary model that, in this case, is shown in frank recoil.