Constitutional Court of Benin

• A referral is opened by any citizens for laws, regulations, administrative acts and the violations of fundamental rights and public liberties.
• Before a law can be promulgated or a regulation be applied, members of the National Assembly, the President and heads of government institutions can refer a case to the court.
  • For authorization and ratification of international agreements, the President or the National Assembly can refer it to the court.
  • In cases of human rights/public liberty violations, the court is authorized to take the case and decides the outcome Ex officio
• In electoral matters
  • Before the election: Any citizen can refer a case to the court provided that there are no limitations in the electoral law.
  • After the election: Electoral complaints will be declared inadmissible before results have been proclaimed because it is premature.
    • Any complaint related to voting on election day must include evidence provided by voters and sent to the court.
    • After Proclamation of Results:
      • After the results have been announced, the type of the election determines the response of the court
      • With Legislative Elections, cases can be referred to the court by people registered on the electoral list or candidates from the constituency where the election took place within ten days of the proclamation of results by the Constitutional Court (pursuant to Article 55 of Organic Law 91-009).
        • Any complaint received after the ten day period is considered inadmissible (except for special cases).
      • In the first round of Presidential elections, any candidate can open a complaint
      • During the second round of presidential elections, only the top two candidates may open complaints.
• For a Constitutional Advisory decision: Only the President of the Republic or the President of the National Assembly may ask the court for an advisory decision on constitutionality. Thus, no private citizen may refer an advisory case to the Court.

Since the creation of the court, its decisions on the right of Beninese workers to strike have been controversial. This is due to differing interpretations of Article 31 of the Constitution:

The State recognizes and guarantees the right to strike. Any worker may defend, under the conditions provided for by law, his rights and interests either individually, collectively or through trade union action. The right to strike is exercised under the conditions defined by law.

According to a decision by then Chief Justice Conceptia Ouinsou, any law that forbids strikes is unconstitutional.^[6] The court under Chief Justice Théodore Holo ruled similarly in a January 2018 decision. However, the court under Robert Dossou and Joseph Djogbenou have rendered decisions in favor of forbidding strikes from certain categories of workers.^{[citation needed]}

The court was also referred a case by defendants in the Dangnivo Affair, following a long pre-trial detention. The court determined on January 23, 2020, that the length of pretrial detention without a lower court ruling of guilt constituted a violation of the defendants rights to a speedy trial.^[7][8]

• Frédéric Joël Aïvo (dir.), en collaboration avec le Centre de droit constitutionnel, Jurisprudence électorale commentée : la présidentielle de 2016 devant la Cour constitutionnelle du Bénin, les éditions universitaires, Cotonou, 2017, 202 p. ISBN 978-99919-71-80-3
• Oladé Okunlola Moïse Laleye, La Cour constitutionnelle et le peuple au Bénin : d'un juge constitutionnel institué à un procureur suzerain, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2018, 683 p. ISBN 978-2-343-14822-9Éric M. Ngango Youmbi, La justice constitutionnelle au Bénin : logiques politique et sociale, L'Harmattan, 2016, 694 p. ISBN 978-2-343-09348-2

• Official site Archived 2011-06-28 at the Wayback Machine