Conclusions on referendum authorization procedures in Europe

This final chapter draws conclusions from the data collection and the comparative analysis. It establishes that the legal nature of referendum authorization accompanied with the abstract and concrete dimensions of the review necessitates that the state institution authorizing referendums has experience in legal adjudication or even in constitutional adjudication. It also claims that the traditional fair trial guarantees are not fully applicable to referendum authorization because it is not a traditional civil or criminal dispute. It is a future-oriented, a priori legal dispute about the permissibility of the referendum issue and the exercise of constitutional rights. However, four procedural guarantees - the independence and impartiality of the decision-maker, the right to a reasoned decision, the right to be heard, and the right to an effective remedy - are compatible with referendum authorization procedures. These guarantees are also minimum requirements to ensure that the rights of the initiators and voters are represented in the procedure and to reduce the risk of arbitrary decision-making.