The two factions challenged the National Assembly’s decision in its entirety, on the grounds that the procedure of adoption was violated, and in its content, in so far as the assembly approved points of the programme that make actions in the internal canonical governance of the Armenian Apostolic Church a goal of state policy, which in their reading violates the freedom of conscience and religion of the Church and the people, by News.am’s account of the decision. The court found that the provisions of a government programme cannot be the subject of constitutional oversight because they have no normative content.
Political statements that acquire legal significance only through further law-making is how the court described the programme. The decision approving it therefore cannot be reviewed as to the programme’s substance, the court said, and the petition did not offer the minimum justification needed to examine a constitutional question on the merits, which under the constitutional law is a ground for refusal.
Rubinyan’s order composes the inquiry committee to study the crisis in the Church as a result of the activities of a number of clergymen and the issues of the Church’s failure to fulfil its exclusive mission in the spiritual life of the people, the development of national culture and the preservation of national identity, as the committee is formally named. Arman Yeghoyan of the ruling majority chairs it, and every member is a majority deputy because the opposition refused to join, by News.am.
Political statements that acquire legal significance only through further law-making is how the court described the programme.
A court that will not read the programme and a committee the opposition will not sit on leave the Catholicos question to the majority’s law-making, which is where the court said it must go.