Gor Hovhannisyan: “If Angela Merkel publicly said such a thing about President of the Constitutional Court of Germany, Professor Andreas Voßkuhle, Merkel would resign on the same day”

In regard to the situation concerning the Constitutional Court (CC) of the Republic of Armenia, 168.am’s correspondent sat down for an interview with Doctor of Law, candidate for judge of the Constitutional Court Gor Hovhannisyan, who has worked as a lawyer in Germany for many years. Let us remind that Hovhannisyan wasn’t elected judge of the Constitutional Court by the National Assembly (NA) on April 16, 2019.

168.am: How would you assess the events regarding the Constitutional Court and particularly Hrayr Tovmasyan, especially in the context of the statement that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan posted this morning, stating that “Hrayr Tovmasyan can’t be the president of the Constitutional Court and have anything to do with the Constitutional Court”?

Gor Hovhannisyan: This isn’t a legal question. I don’t answer political questions because I believe political scientists are more competent to answer them. If we’re dealing with the law, I will try to answer the question.

168.am: From the legal perspective and from the perspective that the head of a branch of power is making such a statement on the head of another branch of power, interfering in the latter’s activities, what does this mean? What is the legal formulation of this?

Gor Hovhannisyan: We need to look at the issue by asking whether the action or statement of this or that official is justified by any power or not. I believe all state bodies, especially constitutional bodies such as the Government and the National Assembly need to show extremely great respect towards the decisions adopted by other bodies. The CC itself is an apolitical body. It’s a court. It isn’t involved in politics and can’t allow itself to respond to the other branches of power such as the Parliament and the Government in the same way when it comes to making political statements since the Parliament and the Government are initially political bodies, and they are the ones that give political evaluations (this is normal). From this perspective, taking into consideration the fact that the CC can’t respond to those statements, the Government and Parliament also need to show some restraint.

The following is my assessment: even though there is no problem with such political statements from this perspective, in my opinion, the mentioned constitutional bodies need to show extreme restraint when making statements targeted at each other. When anyone in Armenia makes a statement, I try to picture the same thing in Germany, and in 99.9% of the cases, I can’t picture it. I would simply rule it out. For instance, if Angela Merkel publicly said such a thing about President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, Professor Andreas Voßkuhle publicly, I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that Merkel would resign on the same day.

Nobody would simply tolerate that. This is simply incredible. However, the cultures in Germany and Armenia are different, including the political culture. We Armenians must try to enhance this sector as well and must say to ourselves that there are boundaries, not say whatever we want and whenever we want.

168.am: So, let’s get this straight. If Hrayr Tovmasyan shows political restraint and doesn’t get into a political debate and doesn’t make political statements in response which, in essence, he doesn’t even have the right to do, the other constitutional bodies take advantage of this and constantly target the president of the CC and blame him for certain things. Is that right?

Gor Hovhannisyan: I don’t know if it is the political neutrality of the CC and the fact that the constitutional bodies are taking advantage of this and making statements or not. I assume this is the reason. However, if your opponent can’t respond to you in the same way and with the same weapons, the war won’t be fair. I believe any dispute, including disputes between higher state bodies, must be solved through law.

168.am: Do you see any relationship between this dispute and the law?

Gor Hovhannisyan: Which dispute?

168.am: The dispute between the Constitutional Court and the executive and legislative branches of power?

Gor Hovhannisyan: I have already talked about this in a previous interview and said that the Constitutional Court is currently operating in accordance with the already existing constitutional regulations. Once again, I can state that it is not safe to say that a certain norm of the Constitution is more important and expresses the people’s will, while another norm, which was adopted by those people through a referendum, should be overlooked. In this case, we are specifically dealing with the regulations of the Constitution related to the Constitutional Court and the transitional provision related to those regulations. The regulations of the Constitution related to the Constitutional Court and the transitional provision need to be interconnected. We shouldn’t separate them and only show interest in one particular regulation since we like it and it’s convenient. This is a non-professional and superficial approach. Several lawyers, including yours truly, have heard the opinions of several German law professors who have provided the German government with consulting for years in the sphere of development of constitutional law and law in general. They also interpreted the norms of the Armenian Constitution and unequivocally insisted that there is no violation of the Constitution.

168.am: Based on your impression, what is the global aim of these actions against the Constitutional Court?

Gor Hovhannisyan: I don’t know. This is another political question. I obviously have my personal opinion. I can make assumptions, but since this is truly a political matter and concerns the political goals of a certain action of a certain political party, it would be better, if the field-related and more competent specialists give clarifications. I’m not a political scientist.

168.am: The authorities are now openly talking about the dissolution of the Constitutional Court and the creation of the Supreme Court after the Constitutional Court is joined with the Cassation Court. Do you believe this is expedient?

Gor Hovhannisyan: I can’t give any evaluation now since there are still no specific legal norms and no text about the amendments to the Constitution, and it all depends on the specific text. I can only say that any amendment to the Constitution must comply with the requirements of the inalterable articles of the Constitution. I believe that after the draft of the constitutional amendments is ready, I can’t recall who the competent and applying body is, but the relevant competent and applying body (there are opinions from one extreme to the next) must definitely address the Constitutional Court to have the constitutionality of the constitutional amendments be verified, that is, only after the draft constitutional amendments are approved by the CC can there be a referendum because, I repeat, these amendments are going to be extremely problematic amendments.