Suchergebnisse

The paper examines the legal framework and parliamentary practice that provides opportunities for the National Assembly of Serbia to act as a "working assembly". After theoretical considerations on the "talking" and "working" assemblies, the author analyzes some issues relating to the Rules of Procedure which regulate the organization, working conditions and functioning of the National Assembly. The subject matter of analysis are the parliamentary committees, the Conference of Presidents, and the plenary sessions of the National Assembly. The Rules of Procedure indicate that there was an intention for the parliament to acquire the characteristics of a "working" assembly. However, parliamentary practice and the absence of good customs indicate that this intention was not achieved in practice. The general conclusion would be that the National Assembly has retained most of the attributes of the "talking" assembly, which performs most of its work in the plenum.

The process of constitutional revision can be observed from two standpoints: the first refers to the elements of the procedure for amending the constitution; the second calls for a review of the subject matter of constitutional revision contained in the Act amending the Constitution. This paper discusses the constitutional legitimacy of the Act amending the Constitution and the new constitutional solutions aimed at changing the provisions on the election of judges and public prosecutors, as well as the provisions on judicial councils in the Republic of Serbia.

Given that political parties participate in the formation, structuring and activity of the parliament, their presence has had a dual impact on the National Assembly of Serbia in the past three decades. On the one hand, their influence has been reflected on the internal structure and efficiency of parliamentary work. On the other hand, the party system combined with the electoral model has left its mark on the mode of political representation. The paper focuses on the impact the political parties have had on the National Assembly in the Republic of Serbia, particularly their influence on the internal organization of the Assembly and the effectiveness in the parliamentary process. The main goal is to explore the normative framework and parliamentary practice in order to analyze the actual prospects of the National Assembly to meet the basic postulates for exercising effective national representation. The main question is whether the Assembly, relying on its constitutional autonomy, is able to achieve the goals of the "working parliament" and the political representation of all citizens. The problem develops around the extent to which the people's representation is capable of exercising its constitutional functions if it does not support and protect the differentiated political will of the people. The aim is to point out to the possibilities provided by the normative framework and the need for successful parliamentary practice in exercising parliamentary autonomy. Parliamentary autonomy is necessary not only for good internal organization of parliament and effectiveness in the parliamentary process but also in terms of strengthening the National Assembly's external impact and position towards the holders of the executive power. The subject matter of analysis are the activities of political parties in parliament, observed through the work of parliamentary groups and parliamentary committees, as well as a lack of the parliamentary opposition guarantees.

Given that political parties participate in the formation, structuring and activity of the parliament, their presence has had a dual impact on the National Assembly of Serbia in the past three decades. On the one hand, their influence has been reflected on the internal structure and efficiency of parliamentary work. On the other hand, the party system combined with the electoral model has left its mark on the mode of political representation. The paper focuses on the impact the political parties have had on the National Assembly in the Republic of Serbia, particularly their influence on the internal organization of the Assembly and the effectiveness in the parliamentary process. The main goal is to explore the normative framework and parliamentary practice in order to analyze the actual prospects of the National Assembly to meet the basic postulates for exercising effective national representation. The main question is whether the Assembly, relying on its constitutional autonomy, is able to achieve the goals of the "working parliament" and the political representation of all citizens. The problem develops around the extent to which the people's representation is capable of exercising its constitutional functions if it does not support and protect the differentiated political will of the people. The aim is to point out to the possibilities provided by the normative framework and the need for successful parliamentary practice in exercising parliamentary autonomy. Parliamentary autonomy is necessary not only for good internal organization of parliament and effectiveness in the parliamentary process but also in terms of strengthening the National Assembly's external impact and position towards the holders of the executive power. The subject matter of analysis are the activities of political parties in parliament, observed through the work of parliamentary groups and parliamentary committees, as well as a lack of the parliamentary opposition guarantees.

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the modalities of the separation of powers in the constitutional state. The starting point is that "pure" forms of separation of powers no longer exist even in traditional constitutional states, whereas in the so-called new democracies the practice is focused on exploring ways of rationalizing the traditional form of parliamentarism. Hence, the semi-presidential system as a new form in the 20th century is proving to be a new platform upon which new modalities of the separation of powers are being built. After considering the theoretical framework of semi-presidentialism, the author focuses on the constitutional approach in the process of selecting the organizational model of the separation of powers. The central topic is the constitutional construction of the separation of powers in Serbia since 1990 and its development through two normative constructions. The last part of the paper highlights, in particular, the prospective of the national separation of powers framework and the possible mechanism for balancing two branches of political power.

In this paper, the author analyzes the process of establishing a system of fundamental values in the rule of law in the context of constitutional discontinuity by exploring the concept of representative mandate as a basic constitutional principle in new democracies. The first part contains general considerations on the relationship between the constituent power and the fundamental values, as well as the (non)legal factors which should provide both for the establishment of constitutional rules and their interpretation for the purpose of upholding the fundamental values. The subject matter of analysis in the second part are citizens' value judgments on the representative mandate, which point out to the evolutive pattern underlying this principle both in the developed and in the developing democracies. Taking into account a discrepancy between the existing and the proclaimed constitutional system in Serbia, the third part of the paper contains a proposal for instituting a set of prospective constitutional measures to support citizens' value judgments on the representative mandate.

This work is aimed at analysing the factors imposing limitations on the legislative function of parliament in the modern constitutional state. The legislative function has clearly been loosing its initial quality of the original and exclusive parliamentary function, because there is a number of legal and political limitations: the judicial review by the constitutional court; the role of the government in the legislative process; the internal organization of parliament, as well as the position of a member of parliament in the parliamentary groups. The constitutional court, through its interactive relation with parliament, has specific task to have a retroactive influence on the lawmakers. The strong domination of the government over the legislative activity expressed through the legislative initiative, an influence on the order of priorities in decision-making processes, to participate in discussions without any limitations and to eventually influence the outcome of the decision-making process using the motion of censure as a means of exerting pressure on the members of parliament, especially those belonging to the parliamentary majority. Taking into account the range and the strength of the impact that the parliamentary committees have, parliaments could be divided into 'the working assemblies' and 'the talking assemblies'. Finally, the nature of the parliamentary mandate (an MP's term of office) is no longer related to certain traditional values of the representative democracy. The significance and the character of the term of office are adjusted to the political framework of parliament in a contemporary constitutional state. It is the question of the relation between the people represented and the ones who represent them. .