Three Generations of European Constitutional Courts in Transition to Democracy

This article focuses on the analysis and evaluation of the role of constitutional courts in democratic transitions, with special reference to Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic. Indeed, the constitutional courts of these countries correspond to three “generations” of European constitutional courts that all emerged from the fall of an authoritarian regime. Through an empirical analysis, this paper seeks to verify how and to what extent the three generations of European Constitutional Courts contributed to grant the implementation of the new, democratic, constitutions, thus favouring the success of the transitional processes. This essay identifies the most relevant factors that favoured or hindered the activity of these courts, and shows that the centralised model of constitutional review is more effective than the decentralised one in the process of transition to democracy.