The subject of the analysis refers to amnesty acts in Poland in the 20 th century. A thesis is posed in the paper that in principle they take place at the moments which are politically important for the Republic of Poland, the aim of which is to establish them in the social consciousness. Typically, they are the acts of the parliament. The Polish doctrine of law clearly presents a separate character of amnesty acts in reference to the court verdicts. They are an expression of the will of the parliament, independent of the court’s judgment, according to which amnesty should be carried out.

The referendum on the dissolution of the parliament held in Latvia on July 23, 2011

Of the numerous direct democracy instruments present in the Latvian Satversme, one of the most interesting solutions is the mechanism of a referendum concerning dissolution of the parliament, initiated by the head of state. A spectacular, and so far the only, example of application of this mechanism was the referendum held on 23 July 2011, as a result of which the Latvian Saeima was dissolved. The article analyzes the constitutional provisions that define this form of direct democracy, taking into account the Latvian political practice. The article focuses on the application of this institution in 2011 and emphasizes the associated social and political conditions. On the background of the Latvian constitutional and political system, in particular the mutual relations between the President of the State and the Saeima, the article presents the importance of this instrument to the Latvian political system and an evaluation of its potential with regard to the system of government.

Early termination of the pairlamentary term as an instrument for seeking an effective parliamentary majority. Comments in the light of the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine

The article discusses the function of early termination of the Parliamentary term consisting of searching for the most effective Parliamentary majority. It was presented in the light of regulations adopted in constitutional law of Ukraine. A mark of lack of positive majority is usually the inability of the Parliament to create the new government. The Constitution of Ukraine provides one more criterion. There was introduced, characteristic only for this state, the institution of legal forcing to create the institutionalized coalition of fractions of deputies covering most of the constitutional composition of the Parliament, under threat of dissolving it by President. The author analyses the effectiveness of this solution in the systemic practice of Ukraine.

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.

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.

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.

Formation of cabinet in countries of Central and Eastern Europe:  comparative analyze

The existence of cabinet in parliamentary systems of government depends on the parliament, which appoints and dismiss cabinet. Aim of the article is comparative analyze of cabinet appointment method in 11 post-communist countries of central and eastern Europe, which are members of European Union, based on constitutional provisions. Research question is whether constitution leave the presidents, who formally nominate the governments, the possibility of real influence on the cast of prime minister post. As a result, I position constitutions on a two dimension scale in which the ends are countries in which the president in principle has no possibility appoint the cabinet against the will of the parliamentary majority (the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland and Slovenia) and countries where the constitution formally leaves the President ability to influence the composition of the government (Lithuania, Hungary and Slovakia). Other countries (Croatia, Romania, Latvia) are in between these extremes.

Unicameral parliaments in Baltic countries

The aim of this article was to show parliaments of three Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and their typical attributes. They all are single chamber parliaments. Among the most important features are: monopoly of legislature, government dependence of parliament and small number of parties in parliament. Seimas, Saeima and Riigikogu are independent objects that makes them efficient political bodies and also makes their political systems more stable.

Specificity of the constitutional arrangements in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Solutions imposed in peace agreement signed in November 1995 in Dayton, Ohio, USA, make the system of Bosnia and Herzegovina doubtlessly the most unusual, and not only in Europe. Starting from the collegiate three-member heads of state, through specific design of the parliament, elected similarly as head of state in not fully democratic election, ending on the Constitutional Court, which includes foreign nationals. Particular attention should be paid also to the atypical state structure, based on the asymmetric units, to an equally unique condominium, as well as to the institution of the Special Representative of the international community, who holds nearly unlimited control over all government bodies at all levels. All these features distinguish Bosnia and Herzegovina, and make that its system eludes of a clear and simple analysis

Legal means of filibustering

This article aims at an attempt to analyze the phenomenon of filibustering, with respect to the legal means used by members of parliament to disturb the legislative procedure. The right to such action stems from the essence of the political opposition itself and can be construed as a last resort in the area of expressing objections to the actions of the majority, while not being illegal. Filibustering is a common phenomenon in all of the well-developed, democratic political systems, which do not penalize such action, moreover, in which the parliamentary tradition or the internal provisions of parliamentary statutes create an opportunity to legally disturb the legislative process. Furthermore, this article concerns the matter of reducing the occurrence of

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 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.

Early termination of parliamentary plenipotentiary powers illustrated  by the cases of Poland and the Czech Republic

This paper concerns early termination of representative body’s term of office executed by the head of the state. The competence has a character of sanction that occurs in case of improper parliamentary performance. It takes on an obligatory or optional form. The act of the President does not require countersignature. The major difference between Poland and the Czech Republic consists in the effect of the institution application. It is not automatic in Poland – the period of parliamentary operation is extended in time and expires the day before the Sejm of the new term gathers. Whereas in the Czech Republic we deal with immediate termination of the lower house activity. Unlike in Poland, the end of the lower house term of office does not affect duration of the Senat plenipotentiary powers. Concerning the termination of term of office under the constitutional act, it needs to be emphasized that there are doubts regarding possibility of its passing in Poland. The reasons for that include regulation of the institution expressed in the constitution in the apparently complete way and the lack of separate constitutional act in the catalogue of the law sources. The Czech Constitutional Court recognizes such an act as being in contradiction with the Czech constitution, which may be additional argument in the discourse.

Instruments for implementing the control function of Sejm –  an attempt to evaluate their effectiveness

The control function is one of the oldest and most fundamental spheres of representative body’s activity. The aim of the control carried out by the representative body is to investigate certain areas of government activity, detect and indicate irregularities, as well as to undertake measures to prevent irregularities in the future. The implementation of the Sejm’s control function, which is based on art. 95, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, occurs when applying wide range of instruments among which we can discern instruments of individual control of Deputies (parliamentary interpellation, parliamentary questions, questions on current affairs and current information), the activities of Sejm committees, including the parliamentary commission of inquiry and instruments of control carried out by the entire chamber. The effectiveness of these instruments may be considered on many grounds – from the possibility of being used by groups staying in opposition to the ruling majority to assessment of the objectives connected to each of the control instruments, and this requires Sejm control criteria to be defined.

Original solutions of government systems on the example of the Vietnam

System of political Democratic Republic of Vietnam (official name state) from 1946 year after world war is in result of imposing from under French occupation on it two factor begin forming – liberation and conquests of authorities by communist group. It model on regulations in constitutional solutions from other states of people’s democracies dating. Year was turning point in history of Vietnamese state systems 1976, which has been set reunification of Vietnam. New state has accepted modified solutions of hitherto existing constitutions only – Socialist Republic of Vietnam easily. Authoritarian character of state belongs to have in mind functioning political system analyzing and in state apparatus of Communist Party of Vietnam predominating role.

Constitutional aspects of a hung parliament in the United Kingdom

The article points out that a hung parliament, one in which no party commands a majority in the House of Commons, raises not only political but also important constitutional questions. The latter are concerned with the proper role of the monarch in constitutional democracy as well as with ministerial responsibility which in a hung parliament needs to be accommodated both to minority and coalition governments. In a hung parliament the government formation is not straightforward and the Queen may be compelled to engage more actively in the process and even to use its reserve powers in case the prime minister defeated at the elections would not resign and ask her for a dissolution of parliament instead. In a hung parliament either minority or coalition government can be formed, though the latter has never been created until 2010. When there is no one-party majority in parliament collective ministerial responsibility has to be accommodated to the circumstances, the confidence rule when minority government was formed and unanimity as well as confidentiality rules if coalition was created.

The purpose of this paper is to present a government crisis in Moldova that took place in 2019 from the point of view of its constitutional basis. Based on a legal dogmatic-analysis, supported with the comparative and historical methods, the paper verifies whether the blame for the situation could be placed solely on the Moldovan political fractions or on the unfortunate distribution of the voters’ preferences, or rather on the legislator who passed ill-advised laws without foreseeing the possibility of a conflict, including the emerging dual power system in Moldova at the time in question.

In its activities, the Senate uses a number of control powers defined by statutes and regulations, although this is not directly based on the provisions of the Polish Constitution. Such a practice is justified, if one considers the nature of the Senate as a representative body and the nature of the senatorial mandate, which does not differ from the nature of the deputy mandate. The role of the Senate, also in the scope of the indicated powers of a controlling nature, may increase when a different political majority in the Senate than in the Sejm is formed. As a result of the post-election agreement in 2019, the political majority in the Senate is different from the political majority in the Sejm. This new phenomenon in the Polish political system creates the possibility of a wider use of the Senate’s “soft” control tools. The presented paper attempts to synthetically present the reasons for considering the Senate’s control powers and their impact on ensuring systemic stability.

The dynamic development of the COVID-19 epidemic hampered the functioning of administrative bodies, especially those consisting of many people. In 2020, many countries had to solve the problem of how to adapt their laws to the requirements of the pandemic, while maintaining the safety requirements of members of parliaments. The introduced solutions included suspending the proceedings, modifying the quorum, or changing the voting method. Few countries (including Poland) have fully used the available technologies, deciding to allow parliaments to hold and vote remotely. The conducted analysis is aimed at identifying the systemic solutions that made it possible to introduce such solutions, as well as at determining what modifications of the legal system were necessary to establish innovative solutions.