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THE SMALL CONSTITUTION OF 1947 AND THE POLISH CONSTITUTIONAL TRADITION

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Czarny P.

Przegląd Sejmowy

2007

issue 5(82)

57-73

The article deals with a 60 year-old act, the Constitutional Act of 19th February 1947 on the system and scope of operation of the supreme organs of the Republic of Poland, which is also called the Small Constitution. The main purpose of the article is to examine whether, and to what extent, this Act could be treated as part of the Polish constitutional tradition. The first part presents the origins of the Small Constitution. The Act is seen as the realization of the concepts promoted by the political camp gathered around the Communist Party, which took power in 1944 and succeeded in the parliamentary election to the legislative Sejm in January 1947. As that was not a democratic election, the Legislative Sejm was not adequately legitimized to adopt a new constitution, even if some minor political opposition still existed at the moment. According to the Small Constitution the system of government of the State was to be based on the principle of temporariness and principle of separation of powers as well as the superior position of the Legislative Sejm guaranteed as a unicameral parliament shaping basic assumptions of the State policy. The applied system resembled to a large extent the parliamentary cabinet model. Many provisions of the Small Constitution were incorporated directly from the March Constitution of 1921. The new institution, inconsistent with a Montesquian division of powers, called the Council of State (composed of the President of the Republic, and Marshal [Speaker] and Vice-marshals of the Sejm) was established. It was modelled on the solutions existed in the Soviet Union. In practice, the process of exercise of power in Poland did not conform to the provisions of the Small Constitution. Under the then existing system of government, called people's democracy, the basic law had to play a special role, to legitimize a 'new authority' and not limit its powers. An important thing, from this point of view, was that the Small Constitution completely ignored the issue of human rights. The hegemonic position of the Communist Party led to the situation in which political decisions were, in fact, made by party organs. Even if the Small Constitution is assessed negatively in the Polish literature, in a relatively long period of operation (i.e. until 1952) it enabled to retain domestic solutions of constitutional law and to strengthen some elements of the Polish constitutional tradition..

THE ORIGINS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE POLISH PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF 22 JULY 1952

100%

Borecki P.

Przegląd Sejmowy

2007

issue 5(82)

75-87

The subject of the creation of the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic is not yet sufficiently examined. This is because the most important and crucial decisions on the content of the future constitution were taken by a select group which included state and party leaders of the Polish People's Republic. Having taken power in Poland, the Communists arbitrarily rejected the April 1935 Constitution, and declared that the March (1921) Constitution is in force. The official work on constitution that took place between May 1951 and July 1952 within the Legislative Sejm, as well as in its Constitutional Committee and subcommittee, was a phoney activity. Its purpose was, above all, to give the appearance of legality and social acceptance to the decisions taken outside parliament, or even outside Poland, in the Soviet Union. In order to improve social acceptance, a public debate on the constitution was held between January and April 1952. The debate had, in fact, a proclaiming nature. The contents of the draft of a basic law was determined, most of all, by the leaders of the Polish United Workers Party (PUWP) and two commissions of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist party existing from June 1949 to March 1951. Moreover, Stalin himself exerted influence directly on some provisions of the constitution inserting (probably in early autumn 1951) around 50 corrections into its text. The contents and origins of the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic show that it was intended to confirm the systemic transformations which were taking place since 1944. The Constitution was one of the last basic laws adopted in the countries of the Soviet bloc in Europe after WW II. Its was consistent with the Stalinist concept of the basic law as the so-called constitution of balance. The circumstances of the creation of the Constitution of 1952 proves that at that time the Polish state lacked democracy and sovereignty. This constitution was, in fact, imposed on the people by the then policy-makers from the PUWP, under the supervision of Stalin.

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2 Przegląd Sejmowy

1 Borecki P.

1 Czarny P.

2 2007

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THE SMALL CONSTITUTION OF 1947 AND THE POLISH CONSTITUTIONAL TRADITION

THE ORIGINS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE POLISH PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF 22 JULY 1952