Power of attorney regime

The term power of attorney regime is used in Switzerland to denote powers of the Federal Assembly (both chambers of parliament) for the Federal Council (government) through which unconstitutional legislation was temporarily made possible by the Federal Council alone during the Second World War . In French it is called les pleins pouvoirs , in Italian pieni poteri . This extra-constitutional, also called state emergency law , was decided or applied repeatedly in crisis, pre-war and war years. The Historical Lexicon of Switzerland names the Neuchâtel trade (1856), the Upper Italian War of Independence (1859), the Franco-German War (1870), the First World War (1914) and the Great Depression (1936) as earlier examples . The federal decree on measures to protect the country and to maintain neutrality of August 30, 1939 gave the Federal Council extraordinary powers - normally only granted to parliament.

The Federal Council then based many of its measures on it, e.g. B. the introduction of a direct federal tax. Even after the war, the Federal Council and the Federal Assembly maintained the power of attorney for longer.

From 1946 various interest groups collected signatures against its continuation. In 1950, the Federal Assembly lifted the power of attorney completely at the end of 1952, particularly in response to political pressure from the narrowly accepted Federal People's Initiative “Return to Direct Democracy” . As before, the Swiss Federal Constitution does not contain an emergency article; the legislative procedures are regulated in its Articles 143–173.

See also

• Emergency law
• German emergency laws in the FRG, there in particular on emergency legislation , 1968
• Austrian War Economic Authorization Act , 1917 (or KWEG)
• Constitution of the German Reich (Weimar Constitution) , 1919. In particular, on Art. 25 (dissolution of the Reichstag) and 48 (right of the President to override basic rights if the constitutional order is endangered, to enact laws - statutory emergency ordinances )

literature

• Zaccaria Giacometti : The Constitutional Law of the Confederation , 1945.
• Andreas Kley: Constitutional History of Modern Times , 2004, 2013 - 3rd A., ISBN 978-3-7272-8682-7 .
• Andreas Kley: Power of attorney regime. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• André Manuel: Les pleins pouvoirs en droit public fédéral suisse , 1953.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Andreas Kley: History of Public Law in Switzerland , Zurich / St. Gallen 2011. p. 119 ff.
2. ^ Andreas Kley: Power of Attorney Regime. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
3. ↑ Andreas Kley: With power through the war In: NZZ am Sonntag of May 4, 2015