Constitutionalisation of Fiscal Rules in Times of Financial Crises – a Cure or a Trap?

Abstract

The global financial crisis of 2008 undoubtedly had a significant impact on the constitutional regulation of economic and financial matters. As a consequence of economic downturn six EU Member States (Germany, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy and Hungary) have amended their constitutions. With economic crisis caused by global pandemic of, the new discussion about constitutional fiscal policy rules is expected. New economic downturn is one of the most important challenges for the constitutional fiscal rules, which undoubtedly will verify their functioning and effectiveness. The main purpose of this paper is to find out if constitutional fiscal policy rules is a cure or trap in times of financial crisis. According to the hypothesis adopted, constitutional fiscal rules can be an effective tool. The article has the following structure. In the first and second part I describe constitutional fiscal rules. The third part concerns the method of constitutionalisation. Subsequently, I am focus on effectiveness of constitutional fiscal policy rules. The last part of the article contains conclusions.