Datasets:

opus

/

liv4ever

like 0

By acclamation the Chairman of the Committee was elected Marģers Skujenieks, who had obtained general recognition for his articles about the national issue of Latvia.

Already at the beginning of work it was apparent that such large number of members would not provide rational work, and therefore it was divided into two Sub­Committees with separate duties.

The first Sub­ Committee had to develop the project of the state political system, but the other – Declaration of Civil Liberties and Rights that would compose a separate part of the Constitution.

Both Sub­Committees and the Joint Constitutional Committee worked a lot and thoroughly.

All projects were discussed in three readings in Sub­Committees and afterwards in three readings in the Joint Committee.

During the first reading general debates took place and during the other two – discussions by paragraphs.”

According to the intention of the Constitutional Committee the Constitution should have consisted of two parts, hence, the Constitutional Committee prepared a project about organisation of the state authority and Declaration of Civil Rights and Duties.

Project of the state political system was prepared by the 1st Sub­ Committee of the Constitutional Committee under the guidance of Fēlikss Cielēns.

The principal theses of the project were prepared by Marģers Skujenieks and Fēlikss Cielēns, who represented the Latvian Social Democratic Workers’ Party.

Fēlikss Cielēns remembered, “The Constitution of Latvia is a collective product, the main work in which has been executed by M. Skujenieks and me, but F. Menders, A. Bergs and to some extent also A. Petrevics, J. Purgals and A. Purgals and A. Sīmanis have taken active part in defining the chapters of the Constitution.

Social democrats are the main authors of the Constitution of Latvia.

But it holds nothing really socialistic.

Instead it holds the principles of the Western civil democracy.”

The 2nd Sub­Committee of the Constitution lead by its Chairman Andrejs Kur inskis prepared the Declaration of Civil Rights and Duties.

This Sub­Committee used the Constitution of Germany of 11 August 1919 (hereinafter the Weimar Constitution) as the basis for the second part of the Constitution.

Professor Kārlis Dišlers clearly denoted the Weimar Constitution as the source of inspiration for the second part of the Constitution.

Also Fēlikss Cielēns in respect to the second part of the Constitution clearly denoted that this project “is based on the corresponding parts of the new Weimar Constitution.”

In the juridical literature opinion is held that in general the Constitution is based on the regulations of the Weimar Constitution.

Of course, at the time of developing the Constitution, Weimar Constitution was considered the most modern in Europe and “the last word of the constitutional legislation”.

Its regulations were carefully studied and analysed, but it was only one of the samples, which the Constitutional Committee got acquainted with.

Analysing the transcripts of the Constitutional Assembly, Professor Valdis Blūzma concluded that the deputies of the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia had referred to a wide range of countries to substantiate their opinions.

Most attention was devoted to the U.S. (30 times), England (29 times), Switzerland (25 times), Germany (25 times) and France (22 times).

Deputies also often referred to Estonia (12 times), the tsarist Russia (9 times), Czechoslovakia (6 times), Poland (3 times), Finland (3 times), Austria (2 times), Hungary (2 times), Sweden (2 times) and Japan (2 times).

Some references have been documented in the transcripts about Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Holland, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, Persia, Peru, Spain and Turkey.

The deputies also referred to the constitutional regulations of the states of Germany and Switzerland of that time.

Of course, these countries mentioned at the debates of the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia do not automatically prove that the constitutional regulations have been taken into consideration and have been reflected in the text of the Constitution.

But it proves that the aspect on the Constitution as the localization of the Weimar Constitution would be too simplified.

The Constitutional Committee processed voluminous information about the constitutional regulations of the countries of that time and was able to create a unique document.

In his memories Fēlikss Cielēns indicates that “the principles of Western parliamentary democracies of England and France were laid on the basis of the political system of our country.”

But the modern studies emphasize that the Constitution is based on synthesis between the Weimar Constitution and Westminster model (the Constitutionalism of the United Kingdom).

The Constitution holds all those concepts of the constitutionalism that were topical in Europe of that time and that were reflected in other constitutions adopted after World War I (in the constitutions of Germany, England, Finland, Greece, Estonia and Lithuania).

Assessing the work of the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia, it should be pointed out that due to various reasons the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia rejected the project of the second part of the Constitution “Basic Regulations on Civil Rights and Duties”.

Although initially it was planned that the Constitution will include a catalogue of the basic rights, the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia considered that the constitutional regulations of organising state authority are sufficient and that the consolidation of the basic rights within the Constitution is not an obligatory duty of the constitutional legislator.