ABSTRACT
In Estonia, the power of constitutional review does not lie with a separate Constitutional Court but is assigned to the Chamber of Constitutional Review at the Estonian Supreme Court, which is comprised of judges of the court’s civil, criminal, and administrative law chambers. Although the small number of rulings makes it difficult to determine clear trends, the Estonian constitutional review procedure stands overall out for its high percentage of restraining rulings and significant strength of decisions. The strength of Estonian constitutional review can be regarded to be owed to its procedural design, where a limited number of applicants and alternative norm control procedures meet the rather broad freedom of decision of the judges. One additional peculiarity of the Estonian constitutional review is that not every significant constitutional issue is decided by the Supreme Court. The Chancellor of Justice often influences the legislature already during the legislative process. Likewise, if the President decides not to promulgate a law, he must allow the parliament to amend the challenged legal act before turning to the court, which the parliament has done repeatedly.
