Democratic Referendums in the EU Member States: European Standards and National Experience

Abstract

The European constitutional tradition rests on the foundation of human rights, the rule of law and democracy. In its interpretation of the meaning of the provisions of Article 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania,1 the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter also referred to as the Constitutional Court) stressed in 2014 that the innate nature of human rights, democracy and the independence of the state are those constitutional values that form the foundation of the Constitution and the whole State of Lithuania.2 No one may deny the provisions of the Constitution that consolidate these fundamental constitutional values; otherwise, the essence of the Constitution itself would be denied. Democracy, as one of the three constitutional values mentioned above, is inconceivable without democratic elections and, in most countries, without referendums. The article confirms that democratic elections and referendums are both based on the same constitutional foundations: the sovereignty of the people, democracy and the constitutionally guaranteed electoral rights. The constitutionally consolidated democratic principles governing elections to political representative institutions are, therefore, mutatis mutandis applicable to referendums. Some of these universal principles underlying the European electoral tradition, as well as examples of national experience in applying these principles, are discussed in the article.