The monography provides a comparative analysis of the constitutional review bodies' activities, their status and efficiency in different Post-Soviet States. It deals with the complex description of the constitutional provisions' compliance, the problems of legal mechanisms and stability, evolution of the local legislation. In this book the authors provide a detailed report of the constitutional review institutions' problems in the process of ensuring its legislative position. In this context we find in the research a description of the legal, political risks of the constitutional control in Post-Soviet States, its social perception and the predictability of its legal systems' development. This work integrates the unique structure of presentation and research materials. By the reflection of this type the authors lay the base for continuing further researches of constitutional review development dynamics in the countries of the region.
The influence of French constitutionalism on the Polish legal order is still present in the studies and analyses of the doctrine of constitutional law. Indeed, the French constitutional tradition forms part of the European legal heritage to which the founders of Polish statehood readily referred. The present text outlines the main thoughts and ideas which, over a period of more than two hundred years – from the second half of the 18th century to the present day – have influenced the constitutional shape of the Polish state either by way of recapitulating or negating various institutional solutions.
This article will analyse the Polish constitutional regulations on the numer of parliament in comparison with the relevant provisions of the basic laws of the other 26 EU member states, and Great Britain. In particular, a comparison will be made between the Polish proposals to reduce the number of parliamentarians and the regulations adopted in the Italian Constitutional Law of 2019, together with their justification. The analysis of these issues allows the conclusion, that the number of parliamentarians in Poland is relatively high compared to the so-called large European countries. In the conclusions will be presented the proposals for changes to Polish constitutional provisions regarding the number of members of the Sejm.
The publication discusses the current problems of the sources of electoral law in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. In the indicated countries, the basic sources of electoral law are their constitutions and statutes, which are a development of constitutional norms. Of great importance in the field of electoral law are also acts of international law, the parties to which are the above-indicated states. At the statutory level, Central Asian countries have developed two models of regulation of electoral law norms: the model of dispersed regulation, in which the provisions of electoral law to representative bodies were regulated in separate acts, and the model of concentrated regulation, expressed in one normative act – the electoral code. In each of these countries the system of sources of electoral law is generally consistent in terms of normative technics and axiological values with similar regulations in developed democratic countries.
The article tries to bring to the light the role of symbolism in the organized human life, in general, and the contemporary societies with the accelerating changes almost in all social structures, in particular. The rational of symbolism in changing socio-political and legal environment creates complexity of the issue, which has been studied in the article, taking into account the methodology of complex system theory. The interconnectivity and interdependency of law, morality and politics create the picture of synergy of different social norms with each other in changing environment. Their positive synergy is able to create a perception of the 'ethical state' – the focal point of equilibrium expressed in the attractor of future admired development. In the legal perspective, the symbol of that attractor appears to be the constitution as the society's and the nation's symbol of coexistence based on the values of mutual past, necessary present and admired future. It is substantiated that the Constitution is the phenomenon, representing a concrete constitutional idea and constitutional identity, and should be the one to be considered as such in a lot of people's minds if we intend to have a proper constitutional system and values. Hence, the Constitution is not just a document with a highest legal force, but also a symbol of a concrete constitutional system, and from this viewpoint the Basic Law has a symbolic significance. The authors substantiate that the mentioned significance of the Constitution makes it clear that constitutional policy in any state should be established and implemented in a manner, obviously demonstrating an attitude towards the Constitution, in the frames of which it is considered as a symbol of a concrete constitutional system. The most important circumstance in this context is to never transform the Constitution (directly or indirectly) from a symbol to an instrument in the hands of both the people and the state power and the whole constitutional policy of the state should be based on the discussed essential idea. Moreover, according to the authors the Constitution should not be subject to amendment parallel to every change of political situation of the state or formation of a new political majority merely conditioned by the mentioned changes. The Constitution has a fundamental role from the aspect of regulating social relations, has symbolic significance and can't be used just as a tool for solving ongoing political problems.
This study aims to answer two questions from the perspective of the constitutional law of the Republic of Poland. Firstly, are there legal regulations that precisely define the rules and limits of exercising the freedom of expression in university spaces, particularly regarding the expression in signs, posters, symbols, avatars, slogans or emblems? Secondly, which applicable legal regulations justify the restrictions on symbol presentation (religious, ideological, political) during the participation in classes, conferences or other academic events? These answers do not pretend to be exhaustive due to the limited scope of this study. Their purpose is only to outline the topic of related problems.
Over the last two decades, family law has undergone changes in Western Europe, widening the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. In addition, some East European countries offer a legal recognition of civil unions of same-sex couples, while others do not offer any legal recognition at all. This diversity in family law has been recently challenged by developments at the European level. It is argued here that this constitutes an adaptational pressure on those European Union (EU) member states that do not offer any or offer only formal recognition of same-sex couples. We examine two cases when member states faced such an adaptational pressure, namely Estonia and Latvia, focusing on the interplay of two types of factors. First is that of formal institutions which, due to their constitutional role or their expertise in the EU law, may act as facilitators of legal changes. On the other hand, there are also political actors which have tried to constrain such an adaptation. We examine here especially the role of two political parties which have made a considerable effort to oppose the change in the two countries. It is argued here that the ideological orientation of these parties explains, at least partly, their opposition to the ongoing Europeanization of family law. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main findings and their implications.
The aim of this article is to try to reconstruct the potential changes to the electoral system to the Sejm and the Senate resulting from the announcements of the politicians of the Law and Justice party, as well as to indicate the impact of such changes on the election results based on the data from the 2019 elections. These studies indicate that such changes would lead to a significant strengthening of the party with the largest number of votes, in fact leading to the marginalization of the smallest parliamentary parties. As a result, there would be a far-reaching disproportionality of the choices and a violation of the material aspect of the principle of equality. In addition, an artificial majority would be created that could, under certain circumstances, constitute a constitutional majority despite relatively low public support.
The issue analysed by the author is that of the institution of Presidential immunity pertaining to the President of the Republic of Poland, and operating in such a way that a sitting President cannot be held criminally liable before a common court for acts tantamount to offences. Inclining towards the essence of this solution and its consequences when it comes to respect for constitutional principles of legalism and equality before the law, the author at the same time seeks to assess the completeness of the provisions in effect in Poland, in so doing identifying a lack of clear directives as to how a former President (i.e. one who has left office) is to be held criminally liable. The conclusion reached by the author can be said to boil down to a recognition that the liability of a former President before Poland's Tribunal of State for offences or crimes committed is of an accessory nature where common courts are concerned, with the condition underpinning recognition of the Tribunal's primacy in matters of jurisdiction being the National Assembly's adoption of a Resolution holding a former President liable constitutionally, and potentially at the same time initiating action in respect of given offences. Any lack of such a National Assembly Resolution must give rise to a particular kind of reactivation – in respect of the former President – of jurisdiction in the dispensing of justice by common courts, given the fact that one of the negative procedural premises has ceased to be non-applicable. Thus, unlike in the case of a President still holding office, the cognition of the Tribunal of State in relation to a former President is neither exclusive nor automatic. Such observations have also stimulated work by the author to develop de lege ferenda postulates regarding the subject matter, as set against the wider background of Poland's political and constitutional system.
The author's goal is to determine the consequences of implementing treaty solutions concerning public debt to the Polish Constitution and to define the differences between the methodology of counting public debt in the European Community and Polish legal order. The raised issues concern important problems from the substantive and practical point of view, therefore the study's content is important for science and practice. The research methodology was based on the analysis of the EU and Poland's normative solutions, opinions expressed in the international and national literature on the subject, and the case law of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal. The paper applies mostly the dogmatic-analytic and legal-comparative method with reference to available statistical data on Poland's public debt. The study allowed the author to gain an understanding of the significance of fiscal rules implemented at the EU level to ensure stability. Article 216(5) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland indicates that the treaty solutions regarding the reference value (public debt-to-GDP ratio) were reenacted. However, until this day, the EU and Poland's debt measurement methods do not fully correspond. In order to counteract excessive debt incursion, a state is required to take not only efficient actions but also ones that are adequate and, to some extent, flexible. This is an expression of acceptance of the EU's preventive assumptions. However, there is still no full correlation in the methodology of calculating public debt in the EU and the Republic of Poland.
