NOTES ABOUT AUTHORS

Summary On 12 December 2016, 316 deputies of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey submitted a constitutional amendment proposal which is mainly related to changing the parliamentary features of the system of government. The constitutional amendment bill was accepted by the Committee on Constitution of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey with minor changes. Hereafter, the bill was discussed and voted on in the Grand National Assembly. The Grand National Assembly passed the constitution al amendment bill by 339 of 550 votes which is not enough for coming into force but holding a referendum by the President of the Republic2. The constitutional amendment law was promulgated by the President of the Republic on 11 February 2017, and the referendum was held on 16 April 2017. According to the official results declared by the Supreme Electoral Council, 51.41% of the valid votes are in favour, while 48.59% voted for no. Hence, the amendments were approved and are subject to coming into force. This article aims to point out the newly-introduced Turkish system of government by comparing the legislative and executive relations of the relevant constitutional systems which in this case are presidential U.S.A., semi-presidential France and super-presidential Russia. The other purpose of the article is to remark the formation of the judiciary branch of the American, English, German and French constitutional systems for the comparison of the regarding constitutional amendment law provisions. In this respect, the article comprises of a comparative legal/constitutional research in terms of legislative-executive-judiciary relations.

Referendum in the Czech Republic’s Law System

The article discusses the use of the Czechs one of the most significant forms of direct democracy – the referendum. The Czechs are not supporters of national popular vote. They still have not worked out a law on a national referendum. Only once a referendum was held at the national level – the EU accession referendum. The citizens of the Czech Republic and the ruling parties are supporters of representative democracy. The situation is slightly different at the local level, where statistics on the numer of organized local referenda are much richer, and the results of the popular vote show the systematically increasing public awareness of the citizens.

Holy Crown in the Hungarian Basic Law of 2011

The adoption of the new Hungarian Fundamental Law is a result of the victory of right wing and conservative coalition (Fidesz–KDNP) in the election of 2010. The cristian-conservative and national point of view of the history and policy is characteristic for the preamble of Fundamental Law. Its text is very ideological, historical and archaical. The part of this trend is the reincorporation of the Hungarian Saint Crown to the text of Fundamental Law and paralelly the revitalization of the theory of historical constitution too. The interest to the Crown and its symbolical meaning has growed directly after the transition in 1989, but the certain „rehabilitation” and „reactivation” of the Saint Crown in the public law is the result of the constitution-making after 2010. The recognition of Saint Crown as a symbol of the constitutional/state continuity and unity of nation is in this form the new element in the current legal order of Hungary.

The Constitution of Hungary as a “political manifesto” of nowadays parliamentary majority

The Fidesz–KDNP coalition won the Hungary parliamentary elections of 2010, which was held in April and May. Coalition capturing two-thirds of seats in National Assembly. Despite the fact that in the Election manifesto were no declarations to change the Fundamental Law, the process of creating the new constitution was started after two months after the election. The final draft of the Basic Law was voted on in National Assembly after less than 9 month after the Election and it’s called “the Fidesz’ Fundamental Law”. During four years (2012–2016) the Parliament passed six amendment acts to the Fundamental Law. Whose main purpose was to adapt it to Fidesz’ political philosophy. Thanks to two-thirds majority, the Government coalition could freely shape the Fundamental Law and (after reform of the judiciary) voluntary in its interpretation.

Position of the President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

The subject of this article is an analysis of the position of the President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). TRCP is considered as the so-called quasi-state, also referred to as “unrecognized state”. In the first place a notion of a quasi-state was discussed and reasons for which this systemic being must be subject to analysis from the point of view of constitutional law were given. The main part of the article is dedicated to a detailed description of the most important regulations related to TRNC President, such as method of election, responsibility, his competence towards legislative authorities, executive bodies and judiciary units. Separate considerations were intended for competence of TRNC President with regard to defensiveness and security, which are crucial due to complicated legal and international situation of TRNC. Also, an attempt to evaluate the presidency model applicable in TRNC Constitution in terms of classifying it as one of the models distinguished in the doctrine was taken. Besides, the impact of constitutional regulations of Turkey being the so-called “patron state” for TRNC on TRNC systemic solutions was discussed.

Constitutional complaint in the Latin America – selected issues

This paper explores some issues, concerning constitutional complaint in the Latin American countries. It starts from the term of constitutional complaint, based both on the Polish and Latin American literature. Such a comparative overview allows then for better understanding the discussed question. Further, there is illustrated different terminology, which is applied in the Latin America. Specifically, there are discussed such issues as the binding legal acts, substantive and procedural premises and the final decisive authorities, which are taking their decisions. This paper also investigates an issue, concerning the function of constitutional complaint in Mexico.

In the face of the European integration, the legal protection of national symbols enjoys momentous significance. The present turbulent times and numerous conflicts, the etiology of which is – e.g. social or political in nature – require an attempt to make a scientific overview of the situation. In this article I will examine the scope of standardization of the protection of national colors in the Polish law, the Italian law and the Community legislation. The study takes into account the historical and contemporary judicial decisions. I will try to answer the question whether the scope of protection of the Community colors in the Polish law is sufficient? The analysis of the examined normative acts has led me to the conclusion that the Polish legislator, after the restoration of independent statehood, attached a great importance to the normative grounds ensuring protection of colors of the national symbols. The Italian constitutional adjustment, compared to the Polish one in the scope of the national colors, is very sparse. Aside from the Community rules, each member state – as a result of historical development – has developed its own model of protection. The colors of the European Union are not expressly protected under the Polish normative regulations. However, de lege ferenda, I reckon that for the interests of legal certainty, the legal status in this field should be amended and relevant norms should be laid down.

Formal law of disciplinary responsibility of the judges of the common courts

The purpose of this article is to present the process of disciplinary liability that the judges of the common courts are subject to especially in relation to the constitutional principle of judges’ independence. In this context, they are discussed the formal aspects of the disciplinary procedure, particularly those concerning initiation of proceedings, recognizing the disciplinary case, joinder of proceedings, appeal and resumption of final judgment. This issue will be used to answer the question, what the function is and what disciplinary proceedings are for in relation to constitutional right to a fair trial and also whether current legislation needs corrections.

Rights and freedoms of man and citizen in the light of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland

This article covers considerations on the issues relating to the rights and freedoms of man and citizen in the light of the Polish Constitution. It is a representation of the commonly accepted democratic values, whose integral part are human rights and their mechanisms.On the basis of the material herein, it can be reasonably assumed that the principle of freedom and of human rights became fundamental in the political system of our state and defined the essence of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997. Its introduction helped regulate issues relating to freedom and human rights in the Polish systemic law.

Did Siciński act alone? A new look at the causes of the rupture of the Sejm in 1652

More than half a century ago, it has been proven that the author of the first practical application of the liberum veto institution was Władysław Siciński during the Winter Sejm of 1652. The opinion presented by the senior Polish parliamentarian researcher of the mid-17th century, Ludwik Kubala, about the reasons of the breakdown of the discussed Sejm has been fixed. It was pointed out to Janusz Radziwiłł’s activity, which was to use Siciński for his own political games. For over a hundred years, the position presented by Kubala has not been challenged, even though it does not have sufficient reasoning in the sources. It can not be ruled out that the current hypothesis is correct, but it is also necessary to look at other possible reasons for the precedential application of the liberum veto institution.

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About the Concept of the Secondary Unconstitutionality of Law

The concept of the secondary unconstitutionality of law has been appearing over the years in the adjudication of the Polish courts, adjudication of the Constitutional Tribunal and in legal literature. During this time there have been diversified contexts, in which this notion has been used. Shortly after the Constitution from 1997 entered into force, ‘secondary unconstitutionality’ was used to describe an influence of the new constitution on a so-called pre-constitutional law. Nowadays the tendency of understanding this concept is different. On the one hand, it specifies the law, which is a result of a faulty, repeating unconstitutional regulations, activity of the legislator. On the other hand, this notion is used in the situation, when as the consequence of the entry into force a judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal the new law is also unconstitutional. The aim of this article is to propose a comprehensive definition of the concept of the secondary unconstitutionality. Moreover, it will be presented a draft of the sense of this notion for the practice of establishing and applying the law in Poland.

Responsibility of Members of the Federal Government in Belgium

The article is devoted to the responsibility of members of the Federal Government in Belgium. The main part of the study concerns the mechanisms of political responsibility. They include individual responsibility of ministers and collective responsibility of the cabinet. According to the original version of the Belgian Constitution of 1831 ministers were responsible to the king. Currently, the House of Representatives is authorized to enforce the individual responsibility of the minister by passing a vote of no confidence. In such situation the king is obliged to dismiss the minister. The entire cabinet may be the addressee of the motion of no confidence, too (collective responsibility). Since 1993 there has been the possibility of overthrowing the government through a constructive vote of no confidence. The article also discusses the problem of legal responsibility of ministers.

Casus of The Iron Yulia – Constitutional Accountability in Ukraine

The article presents the formal and legal scope of responsibility of the highest state officials in Ukraine as well as political practice in this regard against the background of selected political events and political experiences of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine – Yulia Tymoshenko (and her political rivals). In addition to the traditional forms of liability: constitutional, criminal or political, the article speaks about the potential criminal liability of politicians for abuse of power or wrong political decisions.

The Institution of Recall in Latvia

The recall mechanism, like other forms of direct democracy, has raised a growing interest. In the last century, a number of states have used it, both on the central level and,especially, on the regional and local level. The group of such countries was joined in 2008 by Latvia which introduced into its legal system a unique, on the world scale, form of recall. In the article, the author defines the recall mechanism, presents countries where the mechanism exists, and classifies the types of recall. Then the author presents the proces of constitutionalization of recall in Latvia and the current constitutional and statutory provisions pertaining to that institution. Also, an attempt has been made to evaluate the potential of this institution in Latvia’s system of government.

Institution of Revocation of Representatives by Voters in the Republic of Belarus

The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus of March 15, 1994, defining the status of members of the parliament and deputies of the local councils of deputies, referred to the canons of constitutional regulation of the status of a representative in former socialist countries, and above all: the concept of an imperative mandate and the institution of recalling voters by the voters. The aim of this study is first and foremost a comprehensive presentation of Belarusian legal regulations pertaining to the said institution, the conditions for its application, the principles of the appeal process as well as its legal consequences. Discussion of this issue is preceded by a characteristic of the assumed role of the recall of representatives in the doctrinal and legal model of representation adopted in Belarus.

Individual Political Responsibility of the Cabinet Minister in Political Practice under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland from 2nd April 1997

According to the Constitution of Poland from 2nd April 1997, a cabinet minister is political responsible for the political direction of his office to the Sejm and to the Prime Minister. The main goal of this paper is to show, that in practice, the political responsibility of the ministers before the Sejm is illusory. The majority of the vote required to adopt a motion of no confidence is so high that its vote is only possible in exceptional circumstances. Since 1997, no motion of no confidence have been successful, so the Sejm has never succeeded in enforcing the resignation of a minister. That is why, only the political responsibility of the minister before the Prime Minister has a real meaning. The head of government can lead to the dismissal of each minister at any time. When deciding to file an application to dismiss a minister, the Prime Minister must take into account only whether such a decision does not endanger the political support of the majority of the Sejm.

Liability of Police Officers and Other Contemporary Formations for Participation in the Secret Service of the Polish People’s Republic – Constitutional Aspects

The article concerns on a problem of social security and analyzes issue of the change of provisions which regulate pensions of officers of communistic security services, who served their duties after the communistic system collapsed in the Republic of Poland (after the year 1990). The amendment of statutory law has seriously reduced the amount of pensions of indicated above officers. Firstly the author of the essay criticizes the statutory definition (temporal limits) of the totalitarianism, which took place in Poland after the Second World War. It is found that provisions wrongly indicates that communistic totalitarianism ended in 1990, while historians officially claim that it had taken place in 1956. In the second part of the article the author argues that statutory changes seriously violate the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997. New, actually binding provisions are unfair, demoralizing and discriminate persons who legally preformed duties in security formations after the year 1990.

An Effective Promulgation of Law as a Performative Act

The author deals with the matter of publication of law in the Polish legal system. She analyses its’ effectiveness by using J.L. Austin’s speech acts theory. The author proposes a thesis that there are situations in Polish legal system when a publication of law – although assumed to be a performative act – does not fulfill all the standards of performativity and – as a result – can be recognized as ineffective. Citing Austin and Fuller the author excerpts some examples of laws that are wrongly formulated and published in a faulty way. She also states that if a speech act (which is a performative act) is to be called effective, it must be communicated to its’ recipients. As a result, the author analyses both polish legal regulations concerning publication of law, as well as the research showing how people actually acquire the knowledge of law. As it occurs – the official sources as some of the most rarely used, so she proposes a new approach, derived from theatre studies, as theater performances are also being described using the term of performative effectiveness. The suggested solution would be a theoretical switch between the law makers and recepients and an attempt to establish a connection between them. While publishing the law, the law makers should consider who the recipients are, who is supposed to read the regulations, understand the norms and how he or she is going to do it.

Principle of “lex retro non agit”. Is the Law not Retroactive?

The principle of non-retroactivity is recognized as one of the foundations of the civilized system of the modern state. The essence of the principle of non-retroactivity can be reduced to the assertion that the law should, in principle, act “for the future”, therefore it should not be legal norms that would apply to events that occurred and ended before their entry into force. In other words, the legal consequences of events taking place under the old norms should be assessed according to these norms, even if new regulations are already in force at the moment of making such an assessment. The retroactive act of the regulations is when the lawmaker orders certain relevant legal facts, existing before the day of entry into force of the new provisions, assessed in the light of these new provisions, introducing a fiction that these provisions were already in force on the date of the assessed facts. If the regulation contained in the regulation obviously acts “for the future” and at the same time has legal effects only 3 months after the entry into force of the act, it does not violate the principle of non-retroactivity. This doesn’t mean that without violating the principle of non-retroactivity, the legislator may freely interfere in existing legal relations and modify them freely. The boundary here is, above all, observance of the principle of protection of acquired rights and principles of protection of trust in the state and the law. It is unacceptable to create norms retrospectively, if the entities to whom these standards relate could not rationally anticipate such decisions, and extraordinary circumstances or goods subject to constitutional protection, such decisions do not justify. You can withdraw from it, but only exceptionally and for justified reasons, giving the norms the ability to influence the existing situations, if there were valid reasons, and the interested entities had grounds to expect the adoption of such standards.

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Human and citizen rights as moral and political indicator of German Federal Republic legal system

The end of Nazism lawlessness, proved – beyond reasonable doubt – that values which are sustainable and unbreakable exists. These values are getting older – as everything in this world, but does not become outdated. As a starting point shall be taken joint and individual experiences from National-Socialists period, which cannot be forgotten, especially from perspective of historical context: the state and society were impact by ideological experiment. The experiment had a common meaning – individuals disregard and cult of masses. Never individualism did not mean so few. And never the freedom of individual was so deficit commodity. When thinking deeper on this subject, it is – without any doubts, possible to assumed, that these past experiences had strong and thorough influence on authors of German constitution from 1949. It shall be emphasized that the opening word of the German Basic Law is: „The human dignity is irrebuttable”. From the point of legal system, it is striking, because in typical (and – commonly used in other democratic systems) opening constitutional provisions, we can read, to whom the power in the state is dedicated, or what is the legal form of state.

Media and democracy in Poland

Nowadays, it is more and more often that the decisions of individuals are shaped by the media, and for the permanent dialogue of power and citizens it becomes necessary to apply new information and telecommunications techniques, including the Internet. For a society to be fully called civil society: citizens should be well informed, should be interested in politics, should have equal rights of expression and participation in decision making, all decisions should be subject to public debate. At first glance, it can be seen that virtually none of the points is implemented in practice, but rather are marginalized. And the media has become the leading discussion forum on public and state issues. The author reflects on the influence of democracy and mass media on the course of the election campaign and on the image of the candidate in the election. The media are also presented as so-called the fourth authority (after three forms of power: executive, legislative and judiciary), which controls other authorities and informs the public about possible failures. The role of the fourth power assigned to them seems to be insufficient for the media, more and more often we observe many cases in which the media interfere in the constitutional order. The author notes that it often happens that mass media activities do not serve the good of society and the democratic system. So instead of favorably influencing the development of democracy and social awareness, they limit and deform it.

French model of post-legislative scrutiny

The article deals with the subject of evaluation of legislation in the French parliament. The French model for the assessment of adopted legislation is highly original and – to some extent – unique. This is mainly determined by the increase of evaluation activities to the rank of constitutional decisions and a clear recognition that the so-called evaluation of public policies (évaluation des politiques publiques) is one of the functions of the parliament. French experience can not be treated as a model for the establishment of similar assessment procedures in the analytical work of the Polish Sejm. These are carried out on the basis of general scientific and expert advice, which, however, from a formal point of view, are not the proper parliamentary procedure (as is the case in France). However, one can reach for a general scheme of evaluation methodology, which regardless of whether the assessment of adopted laws is carried out by parliament bodies (eg committees) or entities that are part of the Sejm Chancellery (eg BAS) can be adopted. This is primarily about the introduction of two levels of such an assessment, i.e. the level of assessment of the legal degree of implementation of the Act (through the relevant implementing acts) and the level of proper impact assessment that the Act triggers (substantive evaluation). It seems that following the French solutions, one could also introduce, as a solution, optimal, temporal assumptions for such control, i.e. a period of six months to assess whether the law was correctly introduced by the government into the legal circulation and a period of three years to assess this whether the effects that the Act triggers correspond to what was expected at the time the bill was submitted.

Comments on proposed changes to the Election Code

The aim of the article is to present some selected proposals for changes within the Polish electoral law, which – despite the fact that they were formulated by the doctrine of constitutional law and international organizations overseeing the correctness of the election process and were raised in the legislative process – in most cases – have not yet been reflected in subsequent amendments to the Electoral Code. The analysis included the proposals reported by the National Electoral Commission regarding the changes in the provisions of the Code relating to the voting lists, the introduction into the Polish legal order of the national institutions the independent election observers, the admissibility of bringing an appeal to the court against the decisions of the National Electoral Commission, and some cyclical demands to abolish the election silence. The assessment of the indicated issues was made in the light of the OSCE’s position, the science of law, the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the proposed amendment bills to the electoral law.

Functioning of the State Security Service and constitutional guarantees of individual rights and freedoms

The article deals with the issue of a newly formed formation called the State Protection Service, which was established in place of the Government Protection Bureau. The author of the text presents the tasks assigned to the formation and the privileges granted to perform these tasks. He draws attention to the extension of the competences of the formation with the possibility of conducting operational and reconnaissance activities. It presents the threats posed by the functioning of a number of services authorized to secretly obtain, process and transmit information and the impact of these activities on the constitutional rights and freedoms of the individual.

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Current problems of electoral law before elections to local government units

In December 2017, the Sejm adopted the Act on amending certain acts in order to increase the participation of citizens in the process of selecting, operating and controlling certain public bodies. The Act introduced significant changes to the Electoral Code, including, inter alia, the structures of electoral bodies, their competences, as well as the rules and manner of voting by voters. The article presents the most important problems related to the implementation of new rules of local government electoral law in the context of the upcoming elections to local government units.

Changes in Electoral Code according to local elections

In January 2018, the Sejm and Senate have passed hugely controversial law, which is supposed, according to its title, to „increase the participation of citizens in the process of electing, functioning and controlling certain public bodies”, amending inter alia Polish Electoral Code. This amendment destabilizes the electoral system without a clear or evident need short before the most hard and difficult electoral process – the local elections. The most controversial proposals concerned the changes in electoral administration and limiting the mayor (city president) to two terms in office. This law, may lead to politicization of the electoral administration, so there are risks of a loss the transparency of the election. The Author tries to present and evaluate most important changes resulting from new legislation.

The Principle of Proportionality in self-government electoral law

Taking advantage of the freedom to determine the electoral system for self-government bodies, it was largely decided to base it on the principle of proportionality. The proportionality of elections applies in the elections to municipal councils of communes with over 20,000 inhabitants, poviat councils and regional assemblies. As a result, this results in the dominant position of the principle of proportionality in shaping electoral systems in local government elections. The article analyzes the scope and form of the principle of proportionality of elections used in practice in elections to local self-government bodies, and also assessed the adequacy of political representation from the point of view of reflecting the distribution of votes cast by voters in the election and the deviation of this distribution from proportional representation.

Change of rules of constituency creation for local government elections in the Election Code Amendment of 2018

The article presents changes of rules of constituency creation. Purposefulness of the analysis occurred due to the Election Code Amendment of 2018. Changes introduced by the Amendment are very thorough and, at their final stage, will take away communes’ right to create the constituencies, since according to the act of 11 January 2018, since 1 January 2019 right of division of local government units into constituencies and of making changes in this area will become a sole competency of a Election Committee Head. The article also analyses the created legal circumstances in regards to their constitutionality.

The role of the administrative court in the process of dividing a commune into constituencies

The manner of determining the division of a commune into electoral constituencies and determining the number of seats per district is an expression of the implementation of the principle of equality of elections in a material sense. The proper division of a commune into constituencies is a guarantee of the equality of electoral law. The Electoral Code of 2011, originally stipulated that no legal remedy was available to the decisions of the National Electoral Commission issued as part of the verification of the provisions of the electoral commissioner. The Constitutional Tribunal, by a verdict of 6 April 2016, ruled that this regulation is unconstitution. The Act of January 11, 2018 introduced a two-instance control of the legality of the division of the commune into constituencies (before the provincial administrative court and before the Supreme Administrative Court). Subsequently, it was considered that, given that electoral activities related to the formation of constituencies and the change of their borders are covered by the electoral calendar and must be carried out without undue delay that the judicial review procedure should assume speed and efficiency of proceedings in this matter. The Act of June 15, 2018 amending the Act – Election Code and certain other acts amended the provisions on the jurisdiction and mode of judicial review of the electoral bodies’ acts on matters related to the creation of constituencies and on the deadline for lodging appeals and complaints to the court. Court proceedings in this matter have become one-instance, and complaints about resolutions of the National Electoral Commission regarding the division communes into electoral constituencies are to be recognized only by the Supreme Administrative Court. 

Amendments to the Election Code in 2018 in the area of election campaign and election agitation

The aim of the article is to analyze the changes introduced to the Polish electoral law in the scope of the election campaign and agitation campaign based on the act of 11 January 2018 amending the Election Code. The conducted analysis, apart from discussing the new regulations, also includes an attempt to assess them from the perspective of constitutional and international standards, as well as indicating some of those matters which the amendment did not cover and which should be regulated beacause of the problems of electoral practice in Poland. The detailed remarks concern three functionally related thematic areas separated for the purposes of the analysis, i.e. election campaign, agitation campaign and new regulations regarding the financing of election committees during the campaign. 

Post-legislative scrutiny in Westminster

The model of the legislative process adopted in Great Britain is often set as a model for other legislations. The model of British legislative procedure has undergone profound changes over the past twenty years. The introduction of pre-legislative scrutiny and post-legislative scrutiny may be considered the most important changes in the field of legislative proceedings. Post-legislative scrutiny in Westminster is a kind of parliamentary control over government activities. The parliamentary body entrusted with the post-legislative scrutiny is the special committees, which, as a rule, were not involved in the legislative procedure. Post-legislative scrutiny is not a procedure applicable to every act passed by parliament (on the contrary, only a few legal acts are subject to it), and the criteria for the selection of normative acts subject to post-legislative control are not defined. As a consequence, both government decisions regarding the selection of acts, regarding the functioning of which the report will actually be prepared, and the choice of laws subject to full post-legislative control in the parliament are taken in a discretionary manner and do not require justification. At the same time, it is possible to put forward the thesis that – as previously anticipated – the special commissions have no possibility of reviewing every public law that has been passed, and focus only on those that are particularly important for the functioning of society and democracy.

The notion, genesis and representativeness of the second chambers of parliament on the example of the United States of America, the Russian Federation and the Federal Republic of Germany

In this article, the analysis of the studied topic was carried out on the example of the United States of America (USA), the Russian Federation and the Federal Republic of Germany, states with a bicameral parliament and which may be considered representative. All these countries are federal states. This article aims to present the notion of the second chamber of the parliament, its representativeness as well as the analysis of the process of shaping the second chambers over the centuries and an indication that the structure and role of contemporary parliaments in the countries surveyed is the result of the centuries-long evolution of this body.

Reflections on the Polish model of parliamentarism

The political system of each country is subject to constant change. The actual position of the state organs may therefore differ from the legal position described in the constitution. The analysis is aimed at determining if this is the case with the first Polish parliament. For this purpose, cases are indicated where the Sejm exceeds its powers or abuses its political position. Research focuses on three functions implemented by the Polish parliament: legislative, control and creative. On this basis, final conclusions are formulated regarding the Sejm, parliamentarism in Poland, laws changing under the influence of political practice, as well as research attitudes allowing to accurately assess the processes taking place.

The legislative competence of the Senate: the scope of the amendments to the political practice and jurisdiction of the Constitutional Tribunal

The amendments proposed by the Senate from an important element in terms of legislative proceedings. The current arrangements specified in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland regarding the Senate are raising many doubts, as they are clearly creating uncertainty about the authority of this body. This is being demonstrated in the jurisdictional practice of the Constitutional Tribunal, as well as in the political practice. The origin of the scope of the issue of the amendments can be found in the disputes over authority between the Sejm and the Senate after 1989. The jurisdiction of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal over the body in question has been exercised in a way which has significantly influenced the process of limiting the Upper Chamber’s authority. The current experience regarding the amendments proposed by the Senate shows that this aspect of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland needs to be reformed.

Between expectations and effects. Regulatory Impact Assessment ex post as a tool in legislative process

The obvious goal of any legislator is establishing the intended social and economic effects with the law. Therefore, there is an unquestionable need to evaluate the law, to make a thorough analysis of the actual effects of regulation, although relatively reluctantly these types of assessment mechanisms are implemented by lawmakers. However, it is much more difficult and more debatable to find satisfactory methods and instruments that should be used to conduct meaningful research into the effectiveness and efficiency of legal regulations. This text concerns some procedures and criteria in the field of analyzing the effects of legal regulations in comparative perspective and presents model conditions of such an assessment, as well as Polish regulations and practices in this area.

Parliamentary clubs in the statutory norms of political parties (Comments on the statutes of the political parties present in the 8th Sejm of the Republic of Poland)

The principle of political pluralism expressed in Article 11 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997 guarantees the freedom of forming and acting of political parties. The said principle also stipulates the purpose of political parties, which is to influence the formulation of the policy of the State, including the exercise of public authority, by democratic means. Political parties achieve it by parliamentary mechanisms. In practice, it means that members of a given party in the Parliament form parliamentary fractions, which constitute the link between a political party and its representation in the Parliament. Therefore, the regulations on the principles of the formation of parliamentary clubs are included in the statutes of the political parties. In addition, the statutes of the parties define the relations of the club with the parent political party, and they contain guidelines on the actions taken by the club in the Parliament. The analysis of the statutes of the political parties which established clubs in the 8th Sejm of the Republic of Poland shows that each of them contains the regulations concerning the parliamentary representation; however, the level of detail of the accepted solutions varies.

On the responsibility of the Speaker of the Sejm – a contribution to the discussion

The Speaker of the Sejm holds a unique political position. It results from the fact that it is a leading body of the Polish Sejm, with a number of competences exceeding the scope of the representative body’s operation. In addition, the Speaker performs the duties of the President of the Republic of Poland in cases specified by the Constitutional Act. The Speaker’s competences were defined very broadly, but he was subsequently not included in the regime of constitutional responsibility. The absence of mechanisms for enforcing the constitutional responsibility of the Speaker of the Sejm is in contradiction with the principles of a democratic state governed by the rule of law, assuming the responsibility of the authorities.

The procedure for setting up parliamentary agenda in the Sejm of the People Republic of Poland

The article concerns the procedure for setting up parliamentary agenda in the first chamber of the polish parliament – Sejm. It is composed of five main parts: 1) historical roots, 2) general overview of legal provisions, 3) analysis of normative aspects of the procedure, 4) critical look at the current ideas and assumptions underlying the procedure, 5) propositions de lege ferenda towards change of the model of the procedure. All considerations included in the text go far beyond simple demonstration of how the rules being in force in Poland are formulated. In fact they aim to expose advantages and disadvantages of the solutions in question and by this way to indicate opportunities and directions for future reforms. The author supports such a vision by “reviving” some draft provisions from the past which have never been enacted, however which could have helped make the Sejm to be more pluralistic institution and stop being perceived as a body working too much under pressure of conductive majorities.

New legal grounds for reducing salaries and allowances for members of parliament in Poland (selected constitutional issues)

In 2018, two acts amending the hitherto existing regulations on the rules for reducing salaries and allowances for Polish parliamentarians entered into force. At present, apart from the grounds related to preventing parliamentary work and unjustified absence at the meeting, the reduction of salary and allowances is also possible due to violation of the dignity of the chamber by the deputy or senator or because of violating the calm or order in parliament in a blatant manner. The aim of the article is an attempt to evaluate the introduced regulations in the context of their compliance with constitutional and European standards

Some remarks about formal requirements of the motion of no confidence to a cabinet minister

According to the Constitution of Poland from 2nd April 1997, a cabinet minister is political responsible to the Sejm and to the Prime Minister. The Sejm has power to lead to the dismissal of each minister by passing a motion of no confidence. The main goal of this paper is to show the formal requirements of an motion of no confidence to a single minister, and to answer questions: what are the reasons explaining to submit this kind of motion and when member of parliament have a right to demand a dismissal of a cabinet minister. In this paper it is shown the results of an analysis of motions of no confidence to a cabinet minister from 1997 to 2015.

The concept of national heritage in the light of constitutional regulations

National heritage is a constitutional value. It protects it, just like the independence of the Republic of Poland, in accordance with art. 5 of the Constitution. National heritage can be understood as a culture rooted in the Christian heritage of the nation. In this way, it captures the preamble or cultural heritage referred to in art. 6 par. 2 of the Constitution. This last concept seems to be an integral part of the national heritage. The national heritage can’t, as it was proved, be perceived as a heritage of the Polish ethnic nation, although the term “nation” used in the Constitution can be interpreted differently. In practice, the problem is also the status of the cultural heritage of national minorities and whether it is part of the Polish national heritage.

Evolution of parliamentary electoral law in the Republic of Albania after 1990

The aim of this article is to analyse the evolution of the Albanian parliamentary electoral law. In order to trace the changes that have taken place, a detailed analysis has been made of all Albanian electoral laws since 1990, along with their amendments. In the article, the authors indicate the components of the Albanian electoral system and examine the impact of its dynamics on the conditions of the Albanian political system after 1990. In connection with the adopted dependencies between the electoral and party systems, the authors would like to answer the question whether in this case the electoral system is the creator of dynamic changes in the party system of Albania.

The Introduction the Fundamental Law of Hungary Special Focus on the National avowal

The Fundamental Law of Hungary came into force on 1st January 2012. In its mentality it is a conservative, christian constitution having National avowal for the first time. From the six parts of the Fundamental Law of Hungary the title of the first one is the National avowal, the regulations involved can be regarded as an avowal, the self-definition of the state. In the structural and content renewal of the Fundamental Law of Hungary several positive statements can be read compared to the previous ones.

Implementation of the protection of the information interest of the entity as part of access to public information in the light of the draft law on transparency of public life

The right to gain public knowledge has recently become a matter of keen concern. Reasons of that state of affairs should be read into actions in establishment new regulations (The Openness of Public Life act) which are going to replace current act from 6 September 2018 Access to Public Information act. Negatively assessed project about “Openness of Public Life act” implements array of adjustments of current regulations which guarantee obtaining information about public affairs. It also implements new institutions and creates grounds for the occurrence of new “access methods” (more or less directed on broadening the implementation of the information protection interest of the unit). The study is devoted to isolate mentioned above and their judgment.

Proceedings in electoral mode

This article draws attention to the specific differences in legal regulations contained in the Electoral Code from 5th of January 2011 from ‘fixed legal rules’. The institutions covered by the title of the publication concern three areas. The first one is aimed at examining the legality of the elections and is connected with the possible questioning of their result by filing an election protest. The second institution, which is known under the common name “proceedings in electoral mode”, deals with matters related to the socalled dissemination of untrue information and consequences of this fact, which in particular results from the regulation contained in art. 111 of the Electoral Code. The third circle are other legal measures aimed at limiting the scope of acting to a specific act in the electoral process, such as the measure consisting of the possibility of lodging a complaint against refusal to register in the Electoral Register. Such a choice made it possible to make the first conclusion, namely that the electoral process has its own dynamics, and that the essential issue that measures its sequences are terms and their normative shape. The next issue, which was mentioned in this article, is the spectrum of measures that have been included in art. 111 of the Electoral Code in the event of a possible reaction to the dissemination of false information.From the whole range of possibilities, the author draws a special attention to the issue of corrigenda and responses. Those institutions refer to the Press Law. Nevertheless, the amendment to the Press Law consisting of deleting the institution of response, makes the protection system included in the Electoral Code completely illusory in the case of requesting publication of the response to a statement threatening personal interests. This conclusion of this publication is deeply concerning, especially that those institutions ought to be a ‘fuse’ to protect the public from dissemination of untrue information, so that they could be used as a protective measure for the public welfare. This is a public welfare in the form of preventing distortion of the electoral result.

The European region as a form of territorial division of the European Union

The aspirations to develop cooperation within the European Union with partners at the regional level result from the considerable diversification of national legal systems and procedures and the resulting significant difficulties in the conduct and management of cooperation activities. An impulse to deepen the role of the region was the implementation of Structural Fund programs. Voivodships as regions are candidates for the role of the third participant of the EU agreement creating a new three-level system: the community – the state – the region. To participate in this role they must actively work to strengthen their position on the European forum, in particular in the bodies where are creating regional policy. An opportunity for the regions is the development of the European Union’s regional policy, the aim of which is to reduce the differences in local development and eliminate areas of poverty and backwardness. The article presents legal aspects related to the definition of “the region” under Polish law. It also presents the advantages of the Polish voivodship at the EU forum and possible forms of impact on the implemented EU policy.

Impact of Council of Europe on the shaping and popularizing of the standards of the rule of law

The subject of the article is the issue of the Council of Europe’s impact on shaping and popularizing of the standards of a principle of the rule of law. The rule of law is one of the three basic values on which the Council’s activities is based. The Council’s care of maintaining the rule of law standards by the member states is manifested in two main areas. First of all, the Council undertakes activities aimed at defining and creating a uniform, universal way of understanding the principle of the rule of law by individual states. Secondly, the Council’s legal system states a few specific mechanisms to enforce the implementation by the member states of the principle. However, as practice shows, not all of them are sufficiently effective.

The status of objections reported by local government units to the conclusions included in the post-audit statement of regional accounting chambers

Regional chambers of accounts were established by the act of 7th October 1992 as a specialized control and supervision body over the financial management of local government units. Regional chambers of accounts is obliged to carry out comprehensive, problematic and ad hoc controls from which the audit report is prepared. Then the chamber gives local government units the post-audit statement along with the applications to remove the irregularities found. However, local government units may raise objections to these applications if they consider that the violation of the law by mistaken interpretation or misapplication. Local government units are not entitled to a complaint against a resolution of the chamber of the chamber, if this does not include reservations; they are only a voice of opposition to the arrangements made by regional chamber of accounts.

Constitutional responsibility of the President of Ukraine

This article presents issues pertaining to the constitutional responsibility acknowledged by the president of Ukraine. Under the Ukrainian law, the scope of responsibilities taken over by the president of Ukraine translates into his legal and system-related position. According to the Constitution of 26 June 1996, the duties and responsibilities may be attributed ex officio, under the procedure of impeachment. The aim of this article is also to present differences between the representatives of legal doctrines in terms of acknowledging the constitutional responsibility by the president of Ukraine. The article also specifies each stage of the procedure aimed at dismissing the president, provides a list of bodies authorised to commence and conduct the proceedings and making the final decision on the dismissal. Furthermore, the article also provides analysis of legal effects being exerted when the head of state was unconstitutionally dismissed by Viktor Yanukovych. The result of the analysis of legal acts was the formulation of de lege ferenda conclusions referring to/concerning the spectrum of entities authorized to initiate and conducting the impeachment procedure.

Territorial self-government reform in Ukraine (2014–2018)

Territorial self-government as the basic form of organization of society at the local level is one of the oldest forms of decentralization of power. During the time of the Ukrainian territory within the USSR, its development was stopped or even destroyed by ubiquitous centralization (“all power in the hands of the Soviets”) and “partyism.” The system imposed at that time limited the rights and subjectivity of Ukrainian society by introducing a totalitarian system of government. Since the nineties of the twentieth century (that is, since Ukraine regained its independence) the pace of development of self-government has increased significantly, although the remains of the communist regime are still visible. Along with the restoration of statehood, the problem of the location of territorial self-government appeared in the context of the division of powers and the delimitation of competences with the executive. The issues discussed also appeared in the judgments of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The list of tasks entrusted to the local government is constantly increasing, and the responsibility towards citizens is also growing. The main problem of the work is the role of self-government in Ukraine, decentralization of power, financing and settlement of property problems. The aim of the work is to show the general direction of local government development and contemporary trends, taking into account the fact that in Ukraine there is a war with the Russian Federation.

Activity of the Venice Commission to improve democratic standards in the legislation of Montenegro in 2011–2014

This paper is an attempt to show the activity of the Venice Commission regarding Montenegro in 2011–2014. The Commission for Democracy through Law focuses its activity primarily on constitutional law, analyzing not only draft amendments to fundamental law, but also all amendments to the constitution and other legal acts related to the fundamental system order. The actions of the Commission described in the text refer to Montenegro, which is a parliamentary democracy, the political system of which is governed by the 2007 Constitution. The state is applying for membership in the European Union, which began accession negotiations in June 2012. However, there are still many issues in terms of compatibility to European standards, which require significant attention to reach the desired state, in line with the standards functioning in the West of Europe.
The first part of the text is an introduction to the subject of the Venice Commission’s activities. The second part deals with the Commission’s activities in matters of legal aid and its mission to improve democratic standards and the protection of human rights. The third part of the text is an attempt to present the influence of the Venice Commission, through its opinions and recommendations, on the legislative process of Montenegro. It focused on the Commission’s activities and its possible impact on improving the observance of democratic standards in Montenegro. The final thought is in turn an attempt to draw conclusions from the analyzed material.

Place of the Senate in the political order of Romania-a system analysis

The article concerns the Senate, – the upper chamber of the Romanian Parliament. It shows legal and political environment in which it was restored after almost 50 years. The paper describes entire electoral procedure including how candidates for deputies are chosen. In addition, Senate’s competence in influencing the executive and judiciary and its activities on the international arena are being discussed. Role of the upper chamber in legislative process is being analyzed with emphasis on it’s control and creation function. The conclusion is that there is a symmetrical bicameral model in the Romanian parliament.

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The article presents the genesis of the republican Head of State in Poland after the First World War. It was a particularly important moment when the election of the form of government of the Polish State being rebuilt took place. The Author draws attention to the significant relationship between historical events taking place during the First World War, including especially political changes happening in the partitioning states influencing the decision for choosing the republican path.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the provisions of the “draft Constitution of the Polish State” of July 1917 – an original achevement of the Polish doctrine of state law. In the opinion of the majority of contemporary representatives of Polish constitutional law, the activities of the Provisional Council of State of the Kingdom of Poland, as well as the Regency Council – bodies composed of Poles, but appointed by the German occupation authorities in 1916–1917, were meaningless, and the bodies themselves were imposed from outside and pursuing foreign interests. As a consequence, the value of the systemic achievements of these bodies and its meaning is denied. However, the analyzed document developed under the auspices of the Provisional Council of State of the Kingdom of Poland was chronologically the first full draft constitution for Poland after the state regained its independence. It is an interesting and original testimony to the high substantive level of Polish science of constitutional law developing in the absence of Polish statehood. It is also a proof that a mixed (constitutional) monarchy was considered to be the optimal political system for rebuilding statehood after more than 120 years of non-existence. The fact of fully Polish authorship of the project (mainly in the persons of prominent professors of law) may be a counter-argument against the thesis that the idea of a monarchical system for the Polish state reactivated in 1918 was completely foreign and imposed from the outside. Although the Polish political elites in 1918 ultimately gave up the idea of introduction of a constitutional monarchy in Poland, some of the solutions contained in the 1917 draft constitution became an inspiration for later systemic projects, both submitted during the work on the first full constitution of an independent Polish state enacted in 1921 as well as during the subsequent discussions on its revision.

The subject of this study is to present principles of the system determine political character of the state and the system ruling in it of power. The analysis is covered constitutional regulations referring to the following principal principles: principle of the sovereignty of Nation, principle of democratic legal state, principle of freedom and of laws of individual, principle of the division of authorities, principle of the political pluralism, principle of the supreme position of the Constitution, principle of the decentralization of the official authority, principle of the decentralization of the official authority. The work is based on the legal-dogmatic method.

The subject of the article is to identify factors and conditions that determined the system of government of the IInd Republic of Poland under the Small Constitution of 1919. This act served as a temporary constitution until the March Constitution of 1921 came into force, which happened completely only at the end of 1922. Under the Small Constitution there has been made an attempt to introduce the system of supremacy of the parliament. It turned out to be impossible because of high authority of the head of state – Józef Piłsudski, who also served as the Commander-in-Chief. Therefore, the system of balance between the Legislative Sejm and the Chief of State was shaped in the political practice.

In August 1926 and April 1989 the Polish constitutions in force at that time were amended. Substantively these amendments have nothing in common, yet they have many common features, which the author of this article tries to show. In particular, the author draws attention to the fact that they have been used in a way that goes far beyond a formal system correction. The political practice based on them, which differed from the constitutional assumptions, brought fundamental changes in the political system and its evaluation has not been and still is not carried out from the point of view of observance of constitutional standards and the nature of undertaken actions, whether they were aimed to authoritarianism as after May 1926, or to democratization as after April and especially after June 1989.

The March Constitution of 1921, which was to set the framework of a democratic state, but turned out to be an act that would not fit into the balance of power in the state. As a result of the crisis of Polish parliamentarism and the political situation in Europe, the desire to change the system quickly increased. The effect of this was the adoption of the April Constitution April 23, 1935. It was supposed to constitute a kind of compromise between authoritarian and nationalistic tendencies – which in Polish society raised wider opposition and liberalism, which in Polish political conditions did not gain support. The April Constitution denied the classical principle of the division of powers. It was replaced by the principle of concentration of power in the person of the president. This was due to the need to adjust the authoritarian system to the new concept of power and to remodel a decision center that would concentrate the process of governance in all the most important state matters. Centralization of power in the person of the president was aimed at strengthening the state, especially in international relations, and was in line with trends visible in other European countries. In emerging concepts of political changes, the president was perceived as the only organ that implemented the legal order and the superior of the state. The article is to bring the problem of the functioning of the power structure under the April constitution.

The article is devoted to discussing the solutions of electoral law to the Constituent Sejm, one of the most important electoral regulations for the history of modern Polish state. It presents the specific character of its main solutions, in that the decree concerned the territory, which for the most part was not within the power of the emerging Polish state. It was also shown that the voting took place at different times and some of the Sejm deputies did not come from the elections. The influence of the indicated solutions of the electoral law on the further development of constitutional law in Poland was also presented.

The subject of this article is to present the evolution of the constitutional and legal position of the Marshal of the Sejm, which covers the time from regaining independence by Poland to 1997 when the current constitution came into force. Assuming that both the scope of the competences connected with the operating of the Sejm and the powers beyond that area decide on the political position of the Marshal, the constitutional and regulatory solutions concerning that office were analysed. The result of those analyses proves that the position of the chairman of the Polish Sejm changed significantly over the analysed time. The changing political trends were the most important factor determining the constitutional and legal position of the Marshal of the Sejm. In the normative perspective they were reflected in the constitutional acts which were binding successively in Poland. The Marshal has always had the status of the constitutional body; however, this fact has not always determined his strong position in the Sejm.

In the article, the authors compare the institutions of the Senate of the Second Polish Republic on the basis of the Constitutional Act of March 17, 1921 and the Constitutional Act of April 23, 1935. In the first part, the article presents the the way of functioning and selecting the senators in accordance with the provisions of the Constitutional Act of March 17, 1921. The second part of the article is a description of the regulations contained in the constitutional Act of 23 April 1935, on the basis of which then Senate of the Republic of Poland functioned. At the end of this article, the authors indicate similarities, but above all differences, in the functioning of the first chamber of the parliament of the Second Polish Republic.

It would seem that the function of the Chief of State is of purely historical significance and connected with the role played by Józef Piłsudski in the restoration of Polish statehood one hundred years ago. Recently, however, the concept of the Chief of State appears as a publicist figure regarding Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the Law and Justice (PiS). In this essay, the authors would like to evaluate the accuracy of such a comparison. According to their observations, the labelling the current PiS leader as the Chief of State is definitely inadequate. It follows from the fact that his contemporary influence on the functioning of the state is not supported by either personal services or performing state functions. It is based on mythical categories, built on emotions and instruments of historical politics, rather than on real systemic circumstances.

The article examines the evolution of the presidency in Poland since its re-establishment in 1989 until the present Constitution of the Republic of Poland. It analyses the regulations relating to the legal competences of the president. Many of the president’s originally broad competences have been changed or limited. The institution of the president has been included in the executive branch; however, due to the varied nature of president’s competences, it cannot be treated as an organ of the public administration.

This paper seeks to address the issues related with the official acts of the President in selected contemporary Polish constitutions. For this purpose, a preliminary analysis of the position of the head of state was conducted in respect of the March Constitution, April Constitution and the current Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997. The nature of the official acts of the President has been assessed for the system position of the head of state. It also identifies the nature and characteristics of the official acts of the President.