User:L.tak/Constitutional Court of Sint Maarten

The Constitutional Court (Constitutioneel Hof) of Sint Maarten is a court with jurisdiction to evaluate the validity of new laws against the Staatsregeling, the basic law of Sint Maarten. The procedure needs to be initiated by the ombudsman of Sint Maarten within xxx days of the promulgation of an act approved by the Parliament of Sint Maarten. The defendant is the Parliament or the Government of Sint Maarten

History
Evaluation of laws against the constitution was not possible in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and judges are in the Kingdom not in a position to declare a law “unconstitutional” and annul them. They may however choose not to apply

Sint Maarten is one of four countries (landen in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It gained the status of country upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on 10 October 2010. Although the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba had a law constituting a “Constitutional Court of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba” (based in Aruba), the court itself never came into existence. The draft constitution of Sint Maarten

First Case
As of August 2014, the court has rendered a judgement in a single case. In Ombudman vs Government of Sint Maarten, the Ombudsman sought annulment of several provisions of a new Wetboek voor Strafrecht (Criminal Law). Apart from several procedural issues, the complaints concerned:
 * Allowance of animal fights (under a permit system, and only when based on a cultural tradition)
 * The use of a life imprisonment sentences, without realistic opportunities for parole
 * Rules for whom to grant early release as a result of too high prison occupancy