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New European Constitutions: In Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croates and Slovenes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Ralston Hayden
Ralston Hayden
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

In this period during which all political institutions are being tested as never before by the searching criticism of an awakened world and by application to the well-nigh insoluble problems left by the World War, the constitutions which have been developed by the post-war states of Europe possess a peculiar interest to the student of public affairs. They are the results of the conscious effort of the statesmen of these new commonwealths to combine with the historic institutions of their own lands those features of the public law and the political practises of the older democracies which experience has proven to be workable, to be conducive of good government, and to make possible a more or less popular control over affairs of state. The product of a season when democracy is the fashion, all of these instruments are filled with rules and phrases which have a familiar ring in American ears, despite a more than occasional Gallic or native accent.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , May 1922 , pp. 211 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1922

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References

1 An English translation of the constitution of Czechoslovakia appears in Current History, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 727–736 (July, 1920).Google Scholar It is not entirely accurate, and Article 11, which provides that the term for which the Chamber of Deputies is elected shall be six years, is omitted. A better translation is to be found in Hoetzel, and Hoachim, , the Constitution of the Czechoslovakia Republic, With Introduction (Prague, 1920).Google Scholar This pamphlet also contains a number of the constitutional laws of the new republic. An English translation of the Polish, constitution appears in Current History, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 358–367 (May, 1921)Google Scholar, and in the Polish Bulletin, April 15, 1921. The following corrections to this translation are noted: in Article 2, second sentence, “The legislative organs of the nation are;” the word “legislative” should be omitted. Article 35, paragraph 3, should read, “If the Sejm approves by an ordinary majority, or rejects by a majority of eleven-twentieths,” etc. A French translation of the Jugoslav, constitution is printed in L'Europe Nouvelle, IV, No. 31, pp. 987–991, and No. 32, pp. 1021–1027 (July 30 and August 6, 1921)Google Scholar; an excellent English translation by Wolfe, H. W. and Andrews, Arthur I., is now available in Current History, Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 832–847 (February, 1922).Google Scholar In this number of Current History also appears an interesting article upon four new European constitutions: R. R. Buell, “The New Democracies of Europe.”

2 The draft constitution submitted by the government to the constituent assembly provided for a Senate one-third as large as the Chamber of Deputies and composed of members at least forty years of age. The unicameral legislature was substituted only after prolonged discussion, and by a narrow margin. It is interesting to note that in Poland also this question was one of the major subjects of debate in the constituent assembly and among the people generally. The bicameral system won by a few votes.

3 “I. Laws in conflict with the Constitution, the fundamental laws which are a part of it, and laws which may supplement or amend it are void.

“The Constitution and the fundamental laws which are a part of it may be changed or supplemented only by laws designated as constitutional laws.

“II. The Constitutional Court decides whether laws of the Czechoslovak Republic and laws of the Diet of Carpathian Russia comply with Article I.

“III. The Constitutional Court consists of seven members. The Supreme Administrative Court and the Supreme Court each designate two members. The remaining two members, together with the president of the court, are appointed by the President of the Republic.” From the enabling provisions of the constitution. The ordinary courts, “in passing upon a legal question may examine the validity of an ordinance, as to law they may only inquire whether it was duly promulgated.” Pt. iv, Sec. 102.

4 The Polish Senate, like the French upper chamber, shares with the President of the republic the power of dissolving the legislature. Article 26.

5 Hoetzel, , The Definitive Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic, p. 15.Google Scholar

6 Article 42 of the Polish constitution declares that, “If the President of the Republic does not perform the duties of his office for three months, the Marshal shall without delay convoke the Sejm and submit to its decision the question whether the office of the President of the Republic is to be declared vacant. The decision to declare the office vacant is taken by a majority of three-fifths of the votes in the presence of at least one-half of the statutory number of Deputies, that is, the number prescribed by the Law of Elections.” It will be observed that action under this article permanently removes the incapacitated President from office. The Czechoslovak constitution provides a different, but equally definite procedure, as follows: “If the President is incapacitated or ill for more than six months, and if the government so decides in the presence of three-quarters of its members, the National Assembly will elect an acting President, who will serve as such until the impediment is removed.” Article 61. During a brief illness of the President his authority is exercised by the government, which may entrust definite functions to its own president. The Jugoslav constitution contains elaborate provisions for a regency in case of the disability or the minority of the sovereign.

7 Article 54 of the Jugoslav constitution is, perhaps, the most inclusive and definite in its statement of the irresponsibility of the chief of state: “No exercise of the royal power is valid and executory unless it carries the countersignature of the proper minister. The competent minister is responsible for all of the acts of the King, oral or written, countersigned or not, likewise for all of his political actions. The minister of war and of the navy is responsible for all of the acts of the King in his position as commander in chief of the army.”

In Poland, the state is guarded against either a “man on horseback,” or an amateur strategist by Article 46: “The President of the Republic is at the same time the supreme head of the armed forces of the state, but he may not exercise the chief command in time of war.

“The commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the state, in case of war, is appointed by the President of the Republic, on the motion of the council of ministers, presented by the minister of military affairs, who is responsible to the Sejm for the acts connected with the command in time of war, as well as for all affairs of military direction.”

8 In England, for instance, the danger that upon the rejection of one of its measures by the House of Commons the cabinet may resign or advise a dissolution of Parliament, has had many important results, among which three may be mentioned: first, it has been one of the most potent of the causes which have transferred the balance of power from Westminster to Downing street; second, in late years it has greatly increased the range of questions upon which the cabinet may be defeated and still retain office; third, it has made it practically impossible for any member to vote upon any first class bill upon the merits of the question itself. The Polish constitution is briefer, but equally to the point as to the manner in which ministerial responsibility is to be enforced. Article 58 provides that, “The Parliamentary responsibility of the ministers is enforced by the Sejm by an ordinary majority. The council of ministers or any individual minister will resign at the request of the Sejm.”

9 Nothing can make this difference clearer than the constitutional provisions themselves. Article 47 of the Jugoslav instrument declares that, “The executive power belongs to the King, who exercises it through his responsible ministers. …” Article 64 of the Czechoslovak constitution, after vesting eleven specific powers in the President of the Republic, ends by providing that, “All governing and executive power, in so far as the Constitution and laws of the Czechoslovak Republic adopted after November 15, 1918, do not expressly reserve it to the President of the Republic, shall be exercised by the government.” The Polish constitution does not contain so explicit a statement of the independent powers of the government, but it actually does create such powers.

10 Hoetzel, , The Definitive Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic, p. 16.Google Scholar

11 These guaranties define and recognize religious, linguistic and educational rights. They are most definite and complete in the Czechoslovak constitution, in which document they form a special section. Both the Polish and the Jugoslav constitutions put it within the power of the legislature to recognize, or to refuse to recognize any religion, and in Poland, “the Roman Catholic religion, being the religion of the preponderant majority of the nation, occupies in the state the chief position among enfranchised religions.” The further provision that the relation of the state to the church will be determined on the basis of an agreement with the Apostolic See indicates that close relations may be expected to exist between Warsaw and the Vatican.

12 The methods of amendment are as follows. Poland: “Art. 125. A change in the Constitution may be voted only in the presence of at least one half of the statutory number of deputies or senators respectively, by a majority of two-thirds of the votes.

“The motion to change the Constitution must be signed by at least one-fourth of the total statutory number of deputies and notice of such a motion must be given at least fifteen days in advance.

“The second Sejm which will meet on the basis of this Constitution may revise this constitutional law with its own vote, taken by a majority of three-fifths in the presence of at least one half of the statutory number of deputies.”

Czechoslovakia provides for amendment by the affirmative vote of three-fifths of all of the members of both houses; the proposed law must be designated as a constitutional law. Article 33.

In Jugoslavia, the proposal to amend may emanate from the King or from the National Assembly upon the affirmative vote of three-fifths of its total membership. After the legal proposal is made, the National Assembly is dissolved, elections are held, and the new National Assembly proceeds to accept or reject the proposed amendment. Article 126.

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