Standing to Raise Constitutional Issues: A Comparative Analysis

Richard S. Kay, University of Connecticut School of Law

Abstract

This essay, a revised version of the General Report on “Standing to Raise Constitutional Issues” presented at the XVI International Congress of Comparative Law, surveys the principal approaches to this question in different legal systems. It attempts to re-conceptualize the distinctions by positing two principal criteria for standing rules based on two different purposes of constitutional judicial review. The first is to resolve legal questions in order to decide particular controversies; the second is to reinforce the impact of constitutional rules by providing opportunities for authoritative clarifications and elaborations of those rules.