636 Challenges of the Knowledge Society. Legal sciences THE INFLUENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL JURISDICTIONS ON THE BASIC LAWS VALENTINA BĂRBĂŢEANU ∗ Abstract This paper intends to reveal the role played by the constitutional courts or other bodies entitled to perform the constitutional review of normative acts in enhancing the significance of the National Basic Laws and in developing their content. The research will try to show that the case-law created by the constitutional jurisdictions can shape the perception of the society on the Basic Law, offering a different perspective over its meaning. This is the effect of the interpretation of the Basic Law provisions, which is an inherent part of the constitutional jurisdictions’ activity. Keywords: basic Law, supremacy, constitutional review, constitutional courts, amending of the Constitution 1. Introduction Constitutional jurisdictions are entitled to perform the constitutional review of normative acts. In order to do that, the constitutional judge has to evaluate the wording of the contested legal provision and, in the same time, the significance of the constitutional rules comprised in the Basic Laws which serve as benchmarks for the comparison. So, the interpretation of the Constitution is an inherent operation of the constitutional review. It has the potential to enhance its significance and to offer the efficiency required by the supreme character of the Basic Law. Due to the legal binding force of this interpretation, the content of the Basic Law is sometimes expanded and magnified. The constitutional jurisdictions case-law is taken into consideration especially by the legislative bodies that have the legitimacy to amend the Constitutions. The paper will study how different constitutional jurisdictions are involved in the process of supplementing the provisions of the national Basic Laws, with a special look to France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The comparative study includes Romania, as well, and analyzes to what extent the Constitutional Court has the possibility to improve the Romanian Basic Law and to make its provisions more protective for the citizens, for their fundamental rights and liberties. The present study has been inspired by the recent idea that the traditional concept of “negative legislator” established by Hans Kelsen regarding the impossibility of constitutional jurisdictions to modify the reviewed normative act has to be reconsidered. This affirmation is proved by the increasing activism of various Constitutional courts. One of the most incisive study has been accomplished by Christian Behrendt 1 . It has been drafted from the point of view of the reviewed normative acts which can be supplemented this way. The present study tries to highlight the influence of the constitutional case-law on the Basic Law itself. 2. Overview of the legal theory concerning the supremacy of the Basic Law Every state’s legal system consists of a sequence of legal norms that spring one from another, organized in a pyramidal structure where the superior norms regulate the product of the inferior norms. This spatial image has been suggested by Hans Kelsen, the founder of the normative school of law in Wien. According to his theory, the unity and stability of this edifice is due to the interrelation established among its elements. More precisely, on the fact that the validity of a norm is ∗ Ph. D. candidate, Faculty of Law, „Nicolae Titulescu” University (email: valentina_barbateanu@yahoo.com). 1 Christian Behrendt, Le juge constitutionnel, un legislateur-cadre positif – Une analyse comparative en droit francais, belge et allemand, (Bruxelles, Editura Bruylant, Paris, L.G.D.J.), 2006.