# The Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic/The law of February 29th, 1920, whereby the Constitutional Charter of the Czechoslovak Republic is introduced

THE LAW OF FEBRUARY 29th, 1920
WHEREBY THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHARTER OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC IS INTRODUCED.
WE, the Czechoslovak nation, desiring to consolidate the perfect unity of our people, to establish the reign of justice in the Republic, to assure the peaceful development of our native Czechoslovak land, to contribute to the common welfare of all citizens of this State and to secure the blessings of freedom to coming generations, have in our National Assembly this 29th day of February 1920 adopted the following Constitution for the Czechoslovak Republic; and in doing so we declare that it will be our endeavour to see that this Constitution together with all the laws of our land be carried out in the spirit of our history as well as in the spirit of those modern principles embodied in the idea of Self-determination, for we desire to take our place in the Family of Nations as a member at once cultured, peace-loving, democratic and progressive.
Article I.
1. Enactments which are in conflict with the Constitutional Charter or with laws which may supplement or amend it are invalid.
2. The Constitutional Charter may be altered or amended only by laws specifically designated as Constitutional laws.
Article II.
A constitutional court shall decide as to whether the laws of the Czechoslovak Republic and of the Diet of Carpathian Ruthenia (Russinia) conform with Article I.
Article III.
1. The Constitutional Court shall consist of seven members, two of whom shall be appointed by the High Court of Administration and two by the High Court of Justice; the remaining two members and the Chairman shall be nominated by the President of the Republic.
​2. The appointment of representatives of the above-mentioned Courts to the Constitutional Court, the tenure of office, the rules of procedure and the definition of its jurisdiction shall be established by a specific enactment.
Article IV.
1. The present National Assembly shall sit until the convocation of Parliament (the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies).
2. Such laws as may have been enacted by the National Assembly but not made public in the official record by the day of the assembling of Parliament, shall not be promulgated if returned by the President of the Republic to the National Assembly.
3. Regulations of the provisional Constitution, limiting the period of exercise of the rights of the President of the Republic (§ 11 of the Provisional Constitution) and delimiting the duty of the Government to publish the law enacted shall remain valid as to laws enacted by the present National Assembly.
Article V.
The present President shall remain in office until a new election takes place. The duties and obligations of the President, as defined in the Constitutional Charter, become effective simultaneously with the adoption of the Constitutional Charter.
Article VI.
Until the election of the full number of members of Parliament, as required by the Constitutional Charter, the number of members actually elected shall determine the quorum necessary for the enactment of legislation.
Article VII.
1. The provisions of articles I, II, III (§ 1) and VI shall be an integral part of the Constitutional Charter, as set forth in § 33 of that Charter.
2. Provisions as to the execution of laws, as postulated in the Constitutional Charter, shall not form part of that Charter, as set forth in preceding paragraph, unless the Charter provides otherwise.
Article VIII.
1. The Constitutional Charter shall become valid on the day of its proclamation.
​2. Paragraph 20 does not apply to members of the present National Assembly.
Article IX.
On the day designated in article VIII, § 1, all laws and regulations in conflict with the spirit of this Charter and the republican form of the State, as well as all previously enacted Constitutional Laws, shall become invalid, even if part of the latter are not opposed to the Constitutional Laws of the Czechoslovak Republic.
Article X.
The foregoing nine articles shall become valid simultaneously with the Constitutional Charter. The execution of these enactments is hereby placed in the hands of the Government.
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