Two-fold position of the state council presidium in the 1918 temporary constitution of Lithuania

Dokumentine medžiaga atskleidžiama, jog Lietuvos valstybės taryba, 1918 m. rudenį rengdama pirmąją Laikinąją Konstituciją, mėgino balansuoti tarp stiprėjančių respublikinių nuotaikų ir dar nesenų savo monarchinių nutarimų. Tai atspindėjo sumanymas nesteigti specialios, nukreiptos į menamą monarcho vietą, aukščiausiosios vyriausybinės institucijos, o jos galias pavesti Tarybos Prezidiumui, jo netapatinant su jau esama to paties pavadinimo Tarybai vadovaujančia institucija. Besikeičiančios politinės aplinkybės netrukus išryškino aptariamos konstitucinės konstrukcijos trūkumus ir paskatino per trumpą laiką jos atsisakyti.Documentary evidence shows that Lithuanian State Council, when considering the grounds for organizing the state management and the first temporary constitutional act of the independent Lithuania of 1918 was influenced by its own unimplemented decision of 11 July 1918 envisaging constitutional monarchy and the personality of a king. The results of this consideration reflected an attempt of the Council to balance between its own recent decisions regarding monarchy and the increasing republican mood. Without taking into consideration the constitutional experience of other states, it made a compromissory and an experimental decision not to institute a new, even though temporary, monarchy, but to vest the executive power to the current Council Presidium without mixing it with another institution under the same name, i.e. the Council which was vested with legislative power. Analysing the text of the Temporary Constitution and comparing it with the text of the Statute of the State Council, this article discusses the ambiguous nature of the original constitutional construction of the Council Presidium. This construction remained operative for less than two months. Subject to the start of the Russian Bolshevik invasion and increasing aggressiveness of the Polish intentions, rapid change in political environment required more flexibility from the state authorities. The same danger to the state, hoping for increased support from the society, has resulted in the formation of the Cabinet of Ministers that was formed on the basis of wide coalition and governed by the representative of political left. Due to discrepancies between the political constitution of the newly formed Cabinet and the conservative Council and its Presidium, problems arose with respect to mutual cooperation and trust. Concern for adapting the state institutions to the present conditions resulted in a gradual refusal to approve the decisions of the Council Presidium. The legislative power was divided between the Council and the Cabinet of Ministers. Finally, the new edition of the Temporary Constitution of 4 April 1919 replaced the State Council Presidium with an institution of President as the single executive power