The European Commission for Democracy through Law, known as the Venice Commission, after the city where it is situated, is an Enlarged Partial Agreement of the Council of Europe created in 1990 at the initiative of Italy.
The Venice Commission is the body of the CoE which assists States in consolidating and strengthening democratic institutions. Initially conceived as an emergency means of constitutional engineering, in a context of democratic transition, the Commission has seen its business gradually evolve to become an instance of legal independent reflection, internationally recognized.
The Commission contributes significantly to the spread of the European constitutional heritage, based on the fundamental legal values of the continent, and ensures to Member States a “constitutional support”. Furthermore, the Venice Commission, developing standards and guidance on constitutional issues, plays an essential role in the management and conflict prevention.
The Venice Commission is composed of independent experts of international fame for their experience in democratic institutions or for their contribution to the development of law and political science. Members are university professors of constitutional law or international law, judges of the Supreme or constitutional Court, and members of national parliaments. They are appointed for four years by the Member States of the Commission but must act with complete autonomy and independence. Since December 2009, the President of the Commission is Claire Bazy-Malaurie. Before, the Italian Gianni Buquicchio held the role.
The work of the European Commission for Democracy through Law is structured around three fundamental principles of Europe’s constitutional heritage: democracy, human rights and the rule of law, principles underlying all activities of the Council of Europe. These principles are developed in four key areas of the Commission: constitutional assistance; elections, referendums and political parties; co-operation with constitutional courts and ombudsmen; studies, reports and transnational seminars.
All Member States of the Council of Europe joined the Venice Commission. In addition, Kyrgyzstan joined in 2004, Chile in 2005, the Republic of Korea and Montenegro in 2006, Morocco and Algeria in 2007, Israel in 2008, Peru and Brazil in 2009, Tunisia and Mexico in 2010; in later years Kazakhstan (2012), the United States of America (2013), Kosovo (2014) and Costa Rica (2016) joined the Commission. These new members brought to 61 the number of Member States of the Commission. Belarus participates as an associate member. States which have observer status with the Commission are: Argentina, Canada, the Holy See, Japan and Uruguay. South Africa and the Palestinian National Authority have a particular form of cooperation, similar to the observer status.