Amendment of aprii 1989 to the constitution

The author presents changes which to the Polish political system brought the Law of April 7, 1989 on Amendment to the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic (Off. Gazz. No. 19, item 101). The most important changes introduced by the said Law concern: 1) the Diet of the Polish People's Republic; 2) a newly created organ — the Senate of the Polish People's Republic; 3) another newly created chief organ — the President of the Polish People's Republic, with the simultaneous elimination of the hitherto existing chief organ — the Council of State of the Polish People's Republic. The above changes are discussed in three chapters (II, III, IV). The autor paints to their position in the system of chief State organs and sketches their characteristics, competence, the way of appointing these organs, their internal organization and mode of functioning. In the first place, however, the author points to mutual dependencies between these organ?. The author proves that the position of the Diet — which in the Constitution is still defined as the supreme organ of State power, the supreme utterer of the will of the people, the organ realizing sovereign rights of the nation, the legislator and the decision maker who determines the directions of the activity of the State — has to a considerable extent been weakened in favour of the Senate and especially the President. In his concluding remarks the author points to the need of adopting a new constitution. The present one is full of internal contradictions due to numerous amendments going in various directions, depending on periods when those amendments were made. A future constitution should be built along uniform and internally consistent conception based on democratic principles. The author is for a constitution based on the principle of uniformity of power concentrated in the superior representative organ of the nation. He points to the system of Swiss Confederation and rejects the system of distribution of power.Digitalizacja i deponowanie archiwalnych zeszytów RPEiS sfinansowane przez MNiSW w ramach realizacji umowy nr 541/P-DUN/201