The absence of foreign precedents as consolidated practice of the Constitutional Court of Benin

Abstract [It]: Il saggio si concentra sul judicial reasoning della Corte costituzionale del Benin, con specifico riferimento all'utilizzo – o meglio, all’assenza – di precedenti stranieri. Le decisioni della Corte beninese testimoniano una continua riluttanza a basarsi su norme e/o precedenti stranieri, rifiutando sempre di introdurre espliciti riferimenti a questi ultimi. Tuttavia, ci si potrebbe interrogare sul motivo di questo atteggiamento, nonché sull’esistenza di eventuali influenze implicite e sull’importazione indiretta di precedenti stranieri tramite affermazioni di principi. 

Abstract [En]: The article focuses on the judicial reasoning of the Constitutional Court of Benin, with specific reference to the use – or better to say to the absence – of foreign precedents. Its decisions testify to a continuing reluctance to argue based on foreign norms and/or precedents, always refusing to introduce express references to the latter. Nonetheless, one could wonder about the reason of this attitude, as well as on the existence of eventual implicit influences and the indirect import of foreign precedents through principles.

Parole chiave: precedenti stranieri; costituzionalismo africano; giustizia costituzionale; argomentazione giudiziale; Benin.

Keywords: foreign precedents; African constitutionalism; constitutional justice; judicial reasoning; Benin.

Sommario: 1. Introduction. 2. The Beninese constitutional context. 2.1 The birth of the Beninese Constitution of 1990. 2.2 The Beninese Constitutional Court: a wide-ranging competences judge. 2.3 The composition of the Court. 2.4 The decisions of the Court. 2.5 The Court and the scholarship. 3. The empirical research. 3.1. The absence of references to foreign precedents. 3.2. The context. 3.3. The reasoning of the Court. 3.4. The absence of explicit citation to foreign law and foreign case-law. 3.5. Possible explanations. 4. Conclusions.