Extra-legislative parliamentary procedures in the first Sejm of the Renascent Republic of Poland (1919–1922). Legal regulations and parliamentary practice Cover Image

Pozaustawodawcze procedury parlamentarne w pierwszym sejmie odrodzonej Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (1919–1922). Regulacja prawna i praktyka parlamentarna
Extra-legislative parliamentary procedures in the first Sejm of the Renascent Republic of Poland (1919–1922). Legal regulations and parliamentary practice

Author(s): Piotr A. Tusiński
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law
Published by: Kancelaria Sejmu
Keywords: Prime Minister’s exposé; oversight function; creative function; Deputies’ immunity; government investment; Sejm committees, investigative committees; constituent assembly; Small Constitution of 1919;

Summary/Abstract: The first Sejm of the Renascent Republic of Poland — the Legislative Sejm — performed not only the legislative function, but also other systemic functions: oversight over the executive, creative function and the function of the guardian of Deputies’ immunity. In order to perform those functions, the chamber applied various detailed parliamentary procedures — variants of the so-called motion proceedings. The sources of law of these procedures contained norms rudimentarily included in the Small Constitution of 20 February 1919 and principally, in the Standing Orders of the Sejm, although there predominated legal-customary norms, partially implemented from Western European parliamentarism, and partially established domestically, on the basis of parliamentary practice. The majority of extra-legislative procedures and proceedings commenced on their basis, were those within the oversight function of the Sejm (including proceedings related to government investments, interpellations and proceedings involving investigative committees), and further, proceedings related to immunity, including mostly proceedings in matters to express the chamber’s consent to waive a Deputy’s immunity and interventions related to infringement of a Deputy’s immunity by organs of administration. The proceedings established by the Legislative Sejm in relation to immunity proceedings, in the scope of bringing Deputies to extra-immunity accountability, applied eight times before the intra-chamber peer courts — Marshal’s Court and Court of Honour — were an originality in all of the European parliamentarism of the time.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 123-156
  • Page Count: 34
  • Language: Polish