Constitutional history of Poland
The constitutional history of Poland has a long tradition. The first written constitutional laws that restricted the monarch's power were passed after reunification in the 14th century. In a dynamic process, the Kingdom of Poland developed into an aristocratic republic with a democratic expression of will.
Kingdom of Poland and the Noble Republic (First Republic)
The first Polish law that can be called a constitution or constitution is the statute of Kosice in 1374, in which the Polish-Hungarian king Louis of Anjou for the election of his daughter Jadwiga the Holy Queen of Poland the voting nobility privileges conceded . In particular, the kings were forbidden to levy further taxes without the consent of the Sejmiki (regional parliaments of the nobility), or to appoint the nobility to any service.
These rights of the nobility were confirmed and expanded by the subsequent kings in order to favor the choice of their descendants or to win the nobles for a campaign. Władysław II. Jagiełło confessed in the statutes of Piotrków (Eng. Petrikau ) 1388, Czerwińsk 1422, Warta 1423 and Kraków 1433 the inviolability of freedom “neminem captivabimus nisi iure victum” and property without judgments, right to participate in the fiscal policy and other rights too. Casimir the Jagiellon extended these privileges in the statute of Vilnius 1447 to the Lithuanian nobility and put them on an equal footing with the Polish Szlachta . In the statute of Nieszawa in 1454 the nobility got the de facto right to decide on war and peace and the regional parliaments could prevent the granting of rights to other classes. Therefore, some constitutional historians assume that this date already marks the beginning of the aristocratic republic.
The prevailing opinion, however, assumes that the Piotrków Statute of February 27, 1493, in which King Jan Olbracht committed himself to a two-chamber parliament ( Sejm ) for all of Poland, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies ( Izba Poselska ) and a Senate in Piotrków , is to be adopted as the birth of the aristocratic republic and the Church was forbidden from interfering in the secular judiciary . This meant that the nobility (the Szlachta ), which made up 10–15% of the Polish population, was the sovereign in the state. Since 1497 it was also exempt from customs duties. At the same time, the serfs were forbidden to leave the village community before they had paid off all the debts to the landlord, and the townspeople were forbidden to buy land. In fact, the king became the "representative" of the republic appointed (and recallable) by the Sejm.
In 1501 the Mielnik statute transferred the executive power to the senate, the chairman of which was the king (then Alexander the Jagiellon ), but who could be deposed if he did not bow to the majority decision. In the second statute of Petrikau from 1504 control over the allocation of property and offices was transferred to the Sejm, whereby the accumulation of offices in one person was forbidden. The most important constitution of the aristocratic republic was given by the Sejm in Radom in 1505 , namely the Nihil Novi constitution , which was generally translated as "Nothing about us without us" and which also withdrew the legislature from the king . The nobility should be legally equated with each other regardless of wealth. At the same time it was agreed that civil servants should be elected in free elections.
The judiciary was also gradually withdrawn from the king. In 1518 Sigismund the Elder decided not to resolve disputes between nobles and non-nobles. In 1520 the city courts were forbidden to judge nobles and in 1523 a second court was introduced. From 1563 there were temporary supreme courts, but these were only formed ad hoc for individual legal disputes . After the Act of Union of Lublin of 1569, on the largest Polish lawyers of the Renaissance Jan Zamoyski back, was in 1578 a permanent supreme independent from the Royal Court, the Crown Tribunal , established. With this the modern separation of powers in the Polish-Lithuanian Rzeczpospolita of the 16th century was realized.
The legislature lay with the Sejm, the executive with the Senate and the judiciary with the Crown Tribunal. In the Confederation of Warsaw in 1573, the king and other state organs were prohibited from interfering with the religious freedom of the nobles. From 1573 onwards, all these provisions were summarized in the so-called Pacta conventa and had to be signed by every candidate for the Polish throne before being elected. The first state budget in Poland was approved by the Sejm in 1768.
The legal status of the Pacta conventa lasted until 1791 with minor changes. In particular, it is worth noting that the Liberum veto developed in the middle of the 17th century , which made it possible for any MP to overthrow a bill. This promoted the position of the powerful magnates within the nobility, who were regularly able to prevent changes to their golden freedom . During the Enlightenment , however, it was recognized that the privileged position of the nobility was no longer appropriate.
Constitution of May 3, 1791
The four-year-old Sejm (1788–1792) drafted a constitution that was passed on May 3, 1791. It went down in history as the constitution of May 3rd and is considered the first modern constitution in Europe. One of the most important authors of this constitution was Hugo Kołłątaj , one of the greatest personalities of the European Enlightenment. With it, the other estates were also guaranteed extensive privileges.
Duchy of Warsaw
With the restoration of a rump Poland by Napoleon after the three partitions of Poland , the Duchy of Warsaw was created in 1807 .
Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw
On July 22, 1807, it received its own constitution and the Code Napoléon . With the introduction of these two laws, the estates were abolished, all residents were given equal legal status and a uniform court system was introduced. The defeat of Napoleon resulted in the abolition of the Duchy of Warsaw and its legal system at the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15 .
Congress Poland, Grand Duchy of Poznan, Galicia and Lodomeria
During the period of division, the various Polish areas were subject to different political systems. The Grand Duchy of Poznan , the Republic of Krakow and Congress Poland had their own constitutions since 1815.
The most important of these was the constitution of the Kingdom of Poland drafted by Adam Jerzy Czartoryski , which was signed by the Russian Tsar Aleksander I on November 27, 1815 after the Congress of Vienna . She was considered one of the most liberal in Europe at the time. The Sejm in Warsaw had extensive powers over the Tsar. Nevertheless, these rights were not respected by the tsar.
After the November uprising in 1830, the constitution was replaced by a reactionary Basic Law.
The Cracow uprising of 1846 also led to the annexation of this republic by Austria and the repeal of the constitution.
After the uprising in the Grand Duchy of Posen as part of the People's Spring in 1848, this was also dissolved by Prussia .
In return , Galicia and Lodomeria received full autonomy with their own constitution and a parliament in Lemberg in 1867, after the Habsburgs had been weakened by their defeats against Prussia and Italy .
Second republic
Small constitution from 1919
After regaining independence in autumn 1918, the provisional Small Constitution (Polish: Mała Konstytucja ) was passed on February 20, 1919 for the newly established Poland , which was supposed to regulate the growing together state. This act, with the actual title Decision of the Sejm of February 20, 1919 on the commissioning of Józef Piłsudski to continue to exercise the office of Head of State , consisted of just a few lines of text in two articles, with only Article II with numbers 1 to 5 defined the basic organs of the state very vaguely: Number 1 declared the Sejm to be sovereign and mentioned the offices of the Sejm Marshal , Prime Minister and ministers , Numbers 2–5 regulated the powers of the head of state and the interdependencies with the Sejm and the ministers. Even the name of the state was left open as “Polish State”. The right to vote for women was introduced in 1918.
March Constitution of 1921
As early as March 17, 1921, a democratic constitution in parliamentary style was passed by the constituent national assembly . The Sejm and Senate were sovereign and had a prominent position in the legislative and executive branches ( Council of Ministers ) compared to the President . The president, on the other hand, had a more representative function without actual political power.
Constitutional amendment of August 1926
After Piłsudski's May coup in 1926, an amendment was introduced on August 2 of that year, which gave the President a stronger position vis-à-vis the Council of Ministers.
April Constitution of 1935
Finally, in April 1935, the Sejm passed a new constitution that gave the president extensive powers. The President was the sovereign, he was in charge of the Sejm, Senate and the Council of Ministers. He was able to dissolve the first two organs and call new elections. He could also appoint and remove the members of the Council of Ministers.
People's Republic
Small constitution from 1947
In 1947 a provisional constitution was enacted, which still largely contained the democratic elements of the March 1921 constitution .
Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland from 1952
But as early as 1952 a constitution of the People's Republic of Poland, imposed by the USSR and tailored to the socialist dictatorship, came into force, in which the submission to the Soviet Union and the leadership of the Polish United Workers' Party were established. According to the constitution, power lay with the Sejm and the Council of Ministers, but in political practice, as in all real-socialist states, the levels of party and state merged, making the office of General Secretary of the PVAP the center of power. Moreover, all decisions of paramount importance were de facto taken in Moscow and carried out by the Polish party leadership. The separation of church and state in constitutional law was introduced, the practical implementation of which continued into the mid-1960s despite the initially Stalinist power. This constitution survived until 1989 with minor changes.
Constitutional amendment of April 1989
As a result of the round table talks , an amendment was introduced on April 7, 1989, which enshrined the talks in the constitution. Main changes:
- free elections for the reintroduced second chamber - the Senate ,
- Allocation of seats in the Sejm according to the key 65:35%,
- Reinstatement of the office of President .
Third Republic
Constitutional amendment of December 1989
On December 29, 1989, the provisions on the alliance with the Soviet Union and the socialist states, as well as the leadership role of the communist party, were deleted from the constitution and the former state name Rzeczpospolita Polska (German Republic of Poland) with the old coat of arms with a crowned eagle was reintroduced. In addition, the designation of Poland as a "socialist state" was given up in favor of the designation "democratic constitutional state".
Small constitution from 1992
After the first partially free parliamentary elections in the Eastern Bloc in June 1989 , an amendment to the 1952 constitution was overdue. This was not completely repealed for the time being, but was supplemented by the Small Constitution of 1992. In it the separation of powers between the legislature, executive and judiciary was reintroduced. At the same time, the need for a new constitution became increasingly clear. Work began in 1989.
Constitution of the Republic of Poland from 1997
A new constitution for the Third Republic was passed in the spring of 1997 through recognition by the Sejm and Senate, as well as in a referendum by the population. It came into force on October 17, 1997.
In the preamble , a compromise solution is reached between a reference to God and those parts of the population who derive democratic values from other sources.
In the 13 following books the republic, the fundamental rights and obligations, the sources of law, the state organs (Sejm and Senate, President, Council of Ministers), the territorial self-government, the judiciary, the other constitutional organs ( ombudsman etc.), the financial constitution, the extraordinary state and the constitutional changes as well as referenda defined.
This constitution follows the parliamentary tradition of the March 1921 constitution , in which the Sejm and Senate are sovereign.
Amendment proposals
After winning the parliamentary elections and the presidential elections in autumn 2005 , the right-wing conservative PiS announced that it would proclaim the so-called “Fourth Republic” through a constitutional reform. In this the president should again have a more powerful position. In addition, as part of the reduction in bureaucracy, consideration was given to reducing the number of Sejm MPs, switching from proportional representation to majority voting and abolishing the Senate. Some constitutional organs should also be abolished. The term “Fourth Republic” is only to be seen as part of the PiS election campaign and is not even seen by historians as an official name for a new, possible stage in the development of Poland after the fall of the Wall . The PiS plans all failed because of the opposition and the breakup of the governing coalition at the time.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Gotthold Rhode : History of Poland. An overview . 3rd edition, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (WBG), Darmstadt 1980, ISBN 3-534-00763-8 , p. 462.
- ↑ Uchwała Sejmu z dnia 20 lutego 1919 r. o powierzeniu Józefowi Piłsudskiemu dalszego sprawowania urzędu Naczelnika Państwa. In: sejm.gov.pl. February 20, 1919, accessed October 13, 2012 .
- ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 437
- ↑ Ustawa z dnia 17 marca 1921 r. - Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. In: sejm.gov.pl. March 17, 1921, accessed October 13, 2012 .
- ↑ Ustawa z dnia 2 sierpnia 1926 r. zmieniająca i uzupełniająca Konstytucję Rzeczypospolitej z dnia 17 marca 1921 r. In: sejm.gov.pl. August 2, 1926, accessed October 13, 2012 .
- ↑ Ustawa Konstytucyjna z dnia 23 kwietnia 1935 r. In: sejm.gov.pl. April 23, 1935, accessed October 13, 2012 .
- ↑ a b December 30, 1989. Tagesschau (ARD) , December 30, 1989, accessed on December 29, 2016 .
- ↑ CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND . Verassungen.eu. Retrieved October 3, 2012.