Constitutional review

Constitutional review, also called constitutionality review or constitutional control, is the evaluation, in some countries, of the constitutionality of the laws. It is intended to be a system of preventing violation of rights granted by the constitution, assuring efficacy, stability, and preservation.

There are very specific cases in which the constitutional review differs from common law to civil law and judicial review in general.

Written and rigid constitutions represent the supreme norm of the juridical order and are at the top of the pyramid of norms. Also called fundamental law, supreme law, law of the laws, and basic law, they have more formal procedures to updating them than other laws, which are sub-constitutional. The term "constitutional review" is often characterized as a Civil Law concept, but some of the ideas behind it come from Common Law countries with written constitutions. For instance, the United States was the first country to adopt judicial review based directly on its constitution (see Marbury v. Madison), even though the functions of the Constitutional Court and of the Court of the Last Resort are separated at neither Federal nor State level in the United States.

The judicial control of constitutionality applies to normative acts as well.