The substitution of legislative power in Czechoslovak parliaments 1918–1992

Abstract

SUMMARY Lawmaking is the key power of modern legislative assemblies as representatives of the people. There are, however, some situations where the laws are approved by public authorities other than parliament or the legislature as a whole. Two basic types of these situations are delegation and substitution of legislative power. This article aims to present the development of legislative substitution, that is, law-making in place of parliament, when the latter is not able to legislate, such as during a state of emergency or at the end of a session, in modern Czechoslovak history. With the exception of specific periods in the history of the Czechoslovak Republic, namely after its foundation (1918–20) and during its restructuring (1945–46), all its constitutions regularly incorporated the substitution of representative assemblies as lawmakers. In institutional terms, legislative substitution was always ensured by a body created inside parliament. The permanent validity of measures taken instead of a law was conditional upon the additional approval of parliament. Changes were also experienced by other aspects of legislative substitution, for example initiation (until 1960 only by the government) and review-either political or constitutional, such as judicial, legislative power, delegation and substitution.