The 'choices of the Constituent' in the jurisprudence of the Belgian Constitutional Court

The case law of the Constitutional Court on the choices of the Constituent, which is the subject of this study, refers to a similar procedure, in a preventive form: the Constituent sometimes immunises a law that he designates, in the preparatory work for constitutional revision, from any subsequent constitutional review. In this case, the Constituent power acts as a kind of preventive lit de justice. As a result, the Constitutional Court bows to this legislative provision, on the grounds that it takes up a “choice of the Constituent”. Before returning to this case law in detail, it is appropriate to set out certain conceptual guidelines (I). Based on these theoretical benchmarks, we will analyse the development of this case law (II) as well as, on the one hand, the inconsistencies that it generates (III) and, on the other hand, the consequences that it implies for the functioning of the rule of law (IV).