The problem of a bicameral structure of the parliament in Polish constitutions
The problem of a bicameral structure of the parliament in Polish constitutions

Summary/Abstract: Forming a bicameral structure of a parliament in Poland was connected with the adoption of the constitution. The period of the structure formation of the Sejm ends with the famous nihil novi constitution of the Radom parliament from 1505. Later, after the Union of Lublin in 1569, a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth parliament was established. During that time, there was a systematic increase in the number of deputies and senators. In 1788, a parliament, later called the Great Sejm or Four-year Sejm, convened. Its crowning achievement was the enactment of the Act the Government on 3 May 1791. After the rebirth of Poland in the mid-war period, on March 17, 1921 the Legislative Sejm adopted the Little Constitution also called the March Constitution, which restored the bicameral parliament in Poland. The name of the Sejm was kept for the Chamber of Deputies, and the second chamber was the Senate. After the May coup, a new Constitutional Act was passed, which came into effect on 24 April 1935 under the name the April Constitution. In the time of the People’s Republic of Poland, during the referendum the people officially advocated dissolving the Senate, which was ultimately settled by the Act of 22 September 1946. Under the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Poland of 22 July 1952, the principle of a uniform system of state authorities was introduced, which stated that the Sejm was the highest organ of state power. As a result of socio-political changes after 1989, there was the reactivation of a bicameral parliament. The legal basis was the Act of 7 April 1989 on changing the Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland. The Parliament remained the highest organ of state power, but its entitlements were partly changed. Since then every bill of the Sejm has been subject to approval by the Senate.

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