Benin: the Constitutional Court’s powers clarified by the November 15 amendment

This reform is not limited to a technical update. It clearly refocuses the Court on its fundamental role. The new Article 114 now enshrines the Court as the State’s highest authority on constitutional matters.

Its mission remains largely unchanged: to review the constitutionality of laws, to ensure the protection of fundamental rights through that review, and to guarantee the proper functioning of the Republic’s institutions.

This refocusing aims to prevent the Court from encroaching on the sphere of ordinary courts.

An adjustment regarded as logical and coherent

In a rule-of-law state, it is indeed the role of ordinary courts to ensure the protection of and to sanction violations of fundamental rights.

This principle stems from a widely accepted legal tradition: the judge of the ordinary courts is the natural guardian of individual liberties.

The previous wording of the Constitution had introduced a direct guarantee of fundamental rights into the powers of the Constitutional Court, which sometimes created an overlap of missions and areas of ambiguity.

The 2025 revision puts an end to these confusions by making an adjustment regarded as logical and coherent.

By reviewing the conformity of laws with the Constitution, the Court already provides normative protection of fundamental rights. But the concrete application of those rights remains the responsibility of the judiciary, which must adjudicate, sanction and protect individual liberties in particular cases.

This clarification aims to strengthen the institutional balance and to consolidate the separation of roles between the two judicial orders.