Model prezydentury w konstytucjonalizmie frankofońskich państw Afryki Zachodniej

• Authors: Łukasz Jakubiak

Title variants

EN

THE MODEL OF PRESIDENCY IN THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE WEST AFRICAN FRANCOPHONE STATES

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article deals with the model of presidency adopted in the basic laws of eight West African francophone states: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. In many aspects, those acts were based on the systemic solutions applied in the Constitution (1985) of the Fifth French Republic. According to them, the President is the most important element of the constitutional system of government and the basic holder of the executive power. The following aspects were considered in the analysis of the existing model of presidency: the procedure for election of the head of state, incompatibility of the office of President with other posts, performance of the duties of President in the event of vacancy in the office, the status within the executive power and in relation to Parliament, presidential extraordinary powers, requirements of political and legal accountability. The solutions used in the above-mentioned states provide for establishing a presidency more powerful than that existing not only in the parliamentary cabinet system, but also in the French current legal framework. However, the extent of this enhancement in particular states varies, thereby influencing the nature of the existing system of government. In some states included in the article, the constitutions directly draw on the presidential model in which the executive is not responsible to Parliament politically. Others have implemented the basic principle of the semi-presidential system, namely the responsibility of the government to both the head of state and the representative body (Parliament). Notwithstanding the specific nature of the detailed solutions, the said states have implemented a model of presidency adapted to particular political, social and cultural circumstances.

Keywords

EN

constitutional court; review of constitutionality of law; acts of parliament; judicial activism; polemics; fundamental provisions

• Publisher: Kancelaria Sejmu / Chancellery of the Sejm
• Journal: Przegląd Sejmowy
• Year: 2013
• Issue: 3(116)
• Pages: 95-114

Contributors

author

Łukasz Jakubiak

• Dr, Jagiellonian University