Podział władz: idea i jej konstytucjonalizacja

• Authors: Szymanek Jarosław

Title variants

EN

Separation of powers: idea and its constitutionalism

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

The article analyzes the idea of the separation of powers as one of the basic systemic solutions adopted in modern constitutionalism. The starting point is the analysis of the ideas and earlier concepts on which the separation of powers was formed over time. Such concepts should be recognized, inter alia, as mixed government idea or the idea of balanced government and – contained in it – the idea of controlling one power over another. The separation of powers was developed as a function of various political and constitutional ideas. Hence, among others one should talk about the emergence or creation of the separation of powers rather than the discovery or spontaneous emergence of this idea and then translating it into the text of the constitution as a rule of law. The separation of powers is therefore the result of historical experience, a compilation of many other, minor ideas and projects for the proper organization of the state. The division of powers does not have a unified form. Therefore, we can talk about various versions of the division, oscillating between the division in the hard version and the division in the soft or unfinished version, with most of the practically implemented ideas being somewhere in the middle of the extreme versions. In this version, the separation of powers is adapted by the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of April 2, 1997. It adopts the classic version of the division in the variant of the so-called Montesquieu’s tripartite (legislative power, executive power, judiciary power). Nevertheless, it should be taken into account that the Constitution of the Republic of Poland itself contains „gaps” through which new elements and new approaches to the separation of powers are introduced into the binding constitution. This is evident, for example, by the principle of balancing and cooperation of authorities, and the systematics of the Constitution, from which the so-called new authorities, for example a local government authority (Chapter VII of the Constitution) or a control authority (Chapter IX of the Constitution) can be emerged. It should also be remembered that in political thought, as well as in the doctrine of constitutional law, new and various ideas for organizing the separation of powers are systematically appearing. They all assume that the separation of powers cannot be treated orthodox and that it undergoes significant transformations along with the development of the state and its functions.

• Publisher: Kancelaria Prezesa Rady Ministrów
• Journal: Przegląd Legislacyjny
• Year: 2023
• Issue: PL 1 (123)/2023
• Pages: 8-43

Contributors

author

Szymanek Jarosław

• Biuro Analiz Sejmowych Kancelarii Sejmu - Sejm Analysis Bureau at the Chancellery of the Sejm

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0590-5218