Venice Commission
The Venice Commission is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall, at a time of urgent need for constitutional assistance in Central and Eastern Europe.
Creation
The idea to create a Commission for Democracy through Law as a group of experts in constitutional law was conceived by the then Minister for Community Policies of Italy, Antonio Mario La Pergola. The election of the name was based on the theory of La Pergola that expressed that sustainable democracies could only be built in a constitutional framework based on the rule of law.The formal proposal for the creation of the commission was made by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gianni De Michelis, who invited the other Foreign Affairs ministers of the Council of Europe to the Conference for the Creation of the European Commission for Democracy through Law that was held at the Giorgio Cini Foundation in San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice from 31 March to 1 April 1989. At this meeting, Foreign Affairs and Justice ministers reunited with representatives of the Constitutional Courts of the 21 countries of the Council of Europe.
The committee of ministers, seeking to assist the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, approved the creation of the Commission as a partial agreement at the session in Venice from 19 to 20 January 1990. The Foreign Affairs and Justice Ministers of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, the German Democratic Republic, Romania, the Soviet Union and SFR Yugoslavia also participated as observers in this meeting.
On 10 May 1990 ministers from 18 countries of the Council of Europe adopted the statute of the Commission.
Member states
Starting with 18 member states, soon all member states of the Council of Europe joined the Venice Commission and since 2002 non-European states can also become full members. As of 2026, the Commission counts 61 member states – the 46 member states of the Council of Europe and 15 other countries. There are four observers. The Palestinian National Authority and South Africa have a special co-operation status. The EU, OSCE/ODIHR, and OAS participate in the plenary sessions of the Commission.Former member states
was a member state of the Venice Commission from 1996 until 2022, when it got expelled from both the Council of Europe and the Venice Commission following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In January 2026, United States President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the organization.Members
The members are "senior academics, particularly in the fields of constitutional or international law, supreme or constitutional court judges or members of national parliaments". Acting on the Commission in their individual capacity, the members are appointed for four years by the participating countries. The current and former members include,amongst other notable academics and judges:
- Ugo Mifsud Bonnici,
- Talija Chabrieva, Russian jurist, author of the 2020 amendments to the Constitution of Russia
- Jean-Claude Colliard,
- Christoph Grabenwarter,
- Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem,
- ,
- Hanna Suchocka
- Gret Haller,
- Klemen Jaklič,
- Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha,
- Jeffrey Jowell,
- Philip Dimitrov,
- Kaarlo Tuori,
- Pieter van Dijk,
- Juan José Romero Guzmán
Leadership
Simona Granata-Menghini is the current Director, Secretary of the Commission. The Secretary heads the Commission's secretariat at the Council of Europe's headquarters in Strasbourg.
The Commission’s prime function is to provide constitutional assistance to member states. This assistance mainly comes in the form of Opinions. These Opinions relate to draft constitutions or constitutional amendments, or to other draft or legislation in force. The Venice Commission Opinions on specific countries cover a wide range of topics: the system of checks and balances, and the relations amongst different branches of power, the territorial organisation of the States, principles of the rule of law, fundamental rights and freedoms, organisation of the bodies of the constitutional justice, the governance of the judiciary and of the prosecution service, status and powers of ombudspersons, reforms of the electoral system, regulations on the political parties and referendums, etc. At the request of a constitutional court or the European Court of Human Rights, the Commission may also provide amicus curiae briefs on comparative constitutional and international law issues related to a case under consideration.
Requests for opinions come from the participating states and the statutory organs of the Council of Europe or international organisations or bodies participating in the Venice Commission's work. The opinions adopted by the Commission are not binding but are mostly followed by member states.
The areas of the Commission's activities are as follows:
Democratic institutions and fundamental rights
The aim of the assistance given by the Venice Commission is to provide a complete, precise, and objective analysis of the compatibility of laws and constitutional provisions with European and international standards, but also of the practicality and viability of the solutions envisaged by the states concerned.Working method
The working method adopted by the Commission when providing opinions is to appoint a working group of rapporteurs which advises national authorities in the preparation of the relevant law. After discussions with the national authorities and stakeholders in the country, the working group prepares a draft opinion on whether the legislative text meets the democratic standards in its field and on how to improve it on the basis of common experience. The draft opinion is discussed and adopted by the Venice Commission during a plenary session, usually in the presence of representatives from that country. After adoption, the opinion becomes public and is forwarded to the requesting body.Non-directive approach
Although its opinions are generally reflected in the adopted legislation, the Venice Commission does not impose its solutions, but adopts a non-directive approach based on dialogue. For this reason the working group, as a rule, visits the country concerned and meets with the different political actors involved in the issue in order to ensure the most objective view of the situation.Conflict resolution by providing legal advice
A political agreement settling a conflict should be supported by a viable legal text. It may also be possible for an agreement on a legal text to foster a political solution. For this reason the Venice Commission pays particular attention to countries which are going through or have gone through ethno-political conflicts.In this context, at the European Union's request, the Venice Commission has played an important role in developing and interpreting the constitutional law of Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro as well as that of Kosovo. It has also been involved in efforts to settle the conflicts on the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia and Transnistria in Moldova.
The Commission drafts opinions, initiates studies and organises conferences inter alia on:
- Constitutional reform
- Emergency powers
- Federalism and regionalism
- International law issues
- Internal security services and armed forces
- Protection of fundamental rights including the freedom of religion, the freedom of assembly and association
- Protection of minorities and prohibition of discrimination
- Functioning of parliaments and judiciary
Elections, referendums and political parties
The Commission identifies and develops standards in the area of elections through:
- Codes of good practice on elections, on referendums and on political parties
- Opinions - mostly joint ones with OSCE/ODIHR - on electoral legislation
- Legal advice to the PACE election observation missions
- of electoral legislation
Constitutional and ordinary justice
Cooperation with Constitutional Courts, ordinary courts and ombudspersons is done by means of:
- Opinions on and for Constitutional Courts, ordinary courts and for Ombudspersons
- Key constitutional case-law – and
- Regional co-operation with courts' associations
- World Conference on Constitutional Justice
- Seminars and conferences with Constitutional Courts
- Venice Forum – advice and exchange between Constitutional courts
- Joint Council on Constitutional Justice