ЕЛЕМЕНТИ УСТАВНОГ КАРАКТЕРА У ОРГАНСКИМ ЗАКОНИМА ИЗ 1879. ГОДИНЕ
THE SERBIAN CONSTITUTION OF 1869 AND THE ORGANIC ACTS OF 1870

Summary/Abstract: The new Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, of 2006, whose implementation is still ahead, envisaged the obligation of elaborating and supplementing the constitutional provisions by means of statutory legislation. The wording of the Constitution (in 206 articles) contains more than 150 references on upgrading the constitutional provisions and their further detailed statutory regulation, which is yet to be adopted. The most frequent phrases used in the Constitution are as follows: "(the matter), is regulated by law"in compliance with the law - in the manner envisaged by the law”, “Under the conditions established by the law", "which is to be prescribed by the law"; "the law is to be adopted", etc. Consequently, an extensive legislative activity is anticipated in, terms of clarifying the diverse aforementioned formulations used in. the Constitution. An extensive legislative activity additionally ensues from the text of the .Constitutional Act for Implementing the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia of 10th November 2006, but it will take place only after all the institutional conditions have been satisfied (by forming the Government and constituting of the National Assembly).In the constitutional development of the Principality and the Kingdom if Serbia in the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century (which is characterized by six constitutions of the Principality of Serbia, i.e. the Kingdom of Serbia from 1882), the most indicative constitution was the 1869 Constitution of the Principality of Serbia (the so-called Regent's Constitution). This Constitution contained many principled, declarative provisions and a large number of legal gaps. Apart from the political reacts, the declarative nature of these provisions and the legal gaps can be explained by the fact that the Constitution contained 133 provisions altogether. It was supposed to and could be easily compensated by adopting organic acts which would help elaborate and amend the constitutional provisions, and put the Constitution into effect. In the year 1870, five organic acts were adopted in ordinary, legislative parliamentary procedure, in the assembly held for that purpose a year and two months after the adoption of the Regent's Constitution in the Grand Constitutional National Assembly. These acts were: the Act on the Rules of Order in the National Assembly of 1st October 1870, the Act on the Rules of Order in the State Council of 5th October, the Act on the Election of Members of Parliament of 10th October, the Act on the Ministerial Responsibility of 21st October, and the Act on the Press of 23rd October 1870. However, these organic acts exceeded their primary purpose. Not only did they comprise some constitutional provisions but they also changed some of the provisions, neither of which should be allowed.The subject matter of this paper is the analysis of the correlation between the 1869 Serbian Constitution and the 1870 organic acts. The author's intention is to point to possible options in adopting a series of organic acts ensuing from the text of the new 2006 Constitution of the Republic of Serbia.The correlation of the 1869 Constitution and the subsequent organic act of 1870 which enabled the implementation of the Constitution (and generally in the circumstances when the constitutional provisions are of a declarative character, and when the constitution has a significant number of legal gaps which are to be compensated by the statutory legislation), may generate certain flexibility of constitutional circumstances, i.e. bring about quite . different constitutional circumstances under the same constitution. In the first phase of implementing the 1869 Serbian Constitution (in the period from 1869 to 1888), there was a number of occasions when the change of organic acts and the adoption of new political acts created completely new constitutional circumstances under the same constitution. The new constitutional circumstances came as a result and expression of a new political balance of powers, depending on which they could be more progressive or more regressive than the Constitution itself. Another issue of great significance may be that the government could create new constitutional circumstances by adopting its own acts; however, in practice it was also the strengthened National Assembly with clearly articulated political demands that was able to change the constitutional circumstances by passing acts of parliament.Thus, the regressive constitutional circumstances were created by the organic acts of 1870 and the acts of 1884 following the Timok Insurrection, whereas the act from the end of 1875 and the beginning of 1876 as well as of 1881 created very progressive constitutional circumstances, which exceeded the 1869 Constitution.These options make this kind of constitution long-lasting and quite suitable for the governing regimes, particularly in maintaining the regimes which never succeeded or wished to keep up with more progressive social and political developments. This may also contribute to a better understanding of the act of re-enforcing of the 1869 Constitution after the state coup in 1894 by Aleksandar Obrenovic, which eradicated a very progressive Serbian Constitution of 1888.

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