A few words about reform of polish legislative system

From the point of view of the participating or monitoring bodies, the legislative process may be found as unclear and unsatisfying in terms of citizens’ access. The state authorities should be interested in engaging the society in it more widely, though. The more discussion and social consultation within the process of law-making, the greater chance for avoiding errors and mistakes as well as for a social approval and a high level of law preservation. The paper is an attempt to present the very subjective list of the elements of law in need for speedy changes. It also points out the de lege ferenda solutions that might significantly improve its quality.

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.

The Urgent Procedure in Theory and Practice of the Legislative Process under the Rules of the Constitution of 2nd April 1997

Legislative procedure for urgent bills constitutes a crucial prescriptive instrument that is useful to a government in parliamentary system to influence the course of legislative process. In Poland the urgent procedure was introduced by virtue of provisions of the Small Constitution 1992, as a factor that serves to prevent the lengthiness of parliamentary procedures and obstructive actions of parliamentary opposition towards government legislation program. On the basis of decisions taken by the Constitution adopted on 2nd April 1997 and as in the previous legal situation, The Council of Ministers has the exclusive right to initiate legislative proceeding as a matter of urgency. In accordance with the 123rd article, para 1 of the Constitution, urgency clause cannot be applied against tax bills, bills governing elections, draft laws regulating systems and competence of public authorities and drafts of law codes. What is more, on the basis of separate articles, budget bills are excluded from using the urgency process. The basic drawback of the urgency process in Polish political solutions is the lack of constitutional deadlines that would indicate the pace of Sejm activities concerning the urgency clause. In such a situation, the actual pace of investigation of urgent bills in the Sejm depends on the lower house’s will and its bodies. As a result, in practice of Polish parliamentary law, the urgency process is rarely applied by the Council of Ministers, particulary when the government has stable support of Sejm’s majority at its disposal. In such a case, the government may stimulate the pace of parliamentary activities concerning its bills with the use of political pressures nad with no need of using the urgency process.

autonomy to select The objective of this study is to analyze the process of implementing European Union law into the legal system of the Republic of Poland. EU law is to be incorporated in the Polish legl system in such a way as to safeguard its binding force. In other words, it is necessary to ensure the effectivness of European Union law in the legal system  of the Republic of Poland. The Member States are obliged to implement European Union law.This obligation arises out of the adoption of the treaties establishing the European Union, but it s also rooted in the Constitution. It is worth noting that a Member State has the autonomy to selectthe method of incorporating European Union law in its legal system. In the case of the Republic of Poland, the process of implementing European Union law is linked particularly closely to the adoption of statues implementing the provisions of European Union law into the legal system of the Republic of Poland. Should Poland fail to implement EU laws in its legal system properly, it may incur financial liability to the European Union, as well as its own citizens.

The right to petition as an instrument for the development of the Senate’s legislative activity

This article presents the issue of the right to petition as a social tool influencing legislative proceedings in the Senate. The considerations begin with an analysis of the legal norms regulating the institution in the presented scope. Some suggestions for changes have also been made with the aim of improving the quality of the petition process. Practice shows that this instrument of social participation is an important source of inspiration for the creation of the Senate’s legislative initiative, but it could be used even more effectively. In the context of the principle of national sovereignty, the principle of a democratic state ruled by law and social dialogue, it is extremely important to give the institution of petition a substantial shape and ensure it has a real influence on the legislative process.

Privileging of Government Draft Laws in the Spanish Legislative Process

In the article the author identifies the normative arguments as well as the arguments from the constitutional practice justifying the axiom contained in Article 89 of the Spanish Constitution that government draft laws are privileged at the stage of exercising the legislative initiative by constitutionally authorised entities. This allows us to conclude that the thesis of privileging government draft laws finds support in other constitutional provisions and in the provisions of the standing orders of both parliamentary chambers at the stage of initiating legislative proceedings, which allows the Government to have a real influence on the scope of the legislative matter considered by the Cortes Generales.