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(13 February 2014): Saeima vērtēs “uzlaboto” Satversmes preambulas projektu (The parliament will evaluate the improved draft of the preamble of the Satversme) . Available at: http
The preambles are used in the Czech legal system during the last twenty years rather rarely. Nonetheless, constitutions in the Czechoslovak history as in the Czech history are traditionally introduced by the preambles. As the Czech constitutional system inclines to consist of more constitutional legal acts at the supreme level of the interior legal system, we can found two constitutional preambles in the recent Czech constitutional system. Both top constitutional acts-the Constitution and the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Basic Freedoms are preceded by their own preamble. The preambles differ as they are focused on different part of constitutional issues. Despite of this obvious fact they are built-up on some features, which are common to both of them. The preambles are characterized by a modest form-their purpose is to explain, why the new chapter of the legal development is opened, and to offer us a common starting line. Nonetheless, they also keep to us a freedom of movement in the new legal period. Their main goal is to connect the people, not to divide, if the constitutional act, which is introduced by them, should be an expression of the common national will.
The Constitution comprises general clauses and notions whose meaning it does not specify in detail-and this meaning can be established by Constitutional Court. In the Polish doctrine of Constitutional law, opinions about the legal status of the Preamble are diversified. The dominant view in the contemporary doctrine of Constitutional law is that the Preamble has a normative character. The Constitutional Court has many times drawn upon the provisions of the Preamble in its rulings. The provisions of the Preamble dealing with Constitutional principles and values form a “bridge” between natural law and positivist law, which may be conducive to a fuller protection of human rights in the state, and consequently a better operation of Constitutional democracy. But the higher the frequency of principle- and value-invoking notions in the Constitutional text (usually in the Preamble), the greater and the more real is the authority of those who interpret these notions-and impart sense to them-in conditions of a particular constitutional dispute.
If we realize that in the first constitutional laws of modern constitutionalism (such as the Constitution of the USA of 1787, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the Polish Constitution of 3 May 1791 and the French Constitution of 3 September 1791), the contents of the preambles corresponded to contemporary chapters defining the principles of the systems of state government, while the opening chapter of the Polish Constitution of April 2, 1997 includes 29 articles, a question arises whether it was necessary to precede that Constitution with a preamble. Introductions to constitutions are part of the Polish systemic tradition: they featured in the Constitution of 1791, as well as in the so-called March Constitution of 1921, the Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic of 1952 and the so-called Small Constitution of 1992, whereas the so-called April Constitution of 1935 did not have one.Like those of other states, the major contents of the Preamble to the Constitution include a solemn proclamation of those principles and assumptions that its makers found particularly important in light of the state’s history and contemporaneous situation. Setting these out explicitly was assumed to further the goal of integrating consecutive generations around a certain system of values as well as legitimising the system of government that was thereby established. This is why the Preamble indicates the entity who acts as the constitutional legislator (pouvoir constituant) as “the Polish Nation-all citizens of the Republic”, describes the Constitution itself as the “the basic law for the State”, characterizes the historical context in which the fundamental law was adopted and- most significantly-lists all the basic goals of the Polish State and the fundamental principles underlying the fundamental law.The reader may find it striking that the Preamble contents largely overlap, or at least are not coordinated with, the wording of provisions of the first chapter, entitled “The Republic”. This chapter is, as we have mentioned, very long and-as the title suggests-not only does it list the classic principles of the state government system, but it also gives quite an exhaustive description of the Polish national community in all its complexity (including the state’s main tasks and symbols, but also, among other things, references to the institutions of civil society, the definition of marriage enjoying the protection of the state, the duty to take care of war invalids, etc.).
Generally, normative acts are passed without preambles in Germany. The federal Basic Law of 1949, like the Weimar Constitution of 1919, however, did contain a preamble, which has been modified in 1990, upon German reunification. The predominant view on that preamble minimizes its importance for the interpretation of the operative sections of the Grundgesetz. Until 1990, the only normative directive read into the preamble by the Constitutional Court was the precept of the reunification of Germany. According to most authorities on constitutional law, the introductory reference to God (nominatio or invocatio dei) has no legal connotation whatsoever.
This article analyses the way of the French Constitutional Council, starting with its famous Association decision in 1971, transformed a brief reference to historical declarations of rights in the thin Preamble of the current French constitution (adopted in 1958) into a wide-ranging judge-made catalogue of fundamental rights. This, combined with two important reforms of the procedure for submissions of statutes to the Constitutional Council for review (in 1974 and 2008), are gradually establishing the Constitutional Council as an important actor in the legislative process and a central body for the protection of human rights in France. The article also briefly explores the scope and limits of this protection. It then discusses recent proposals for amending the Preamble. It analyses the only amendment so far, namely the inclusion of a reference to the Charter for the Environment, which aimed at providing a constitutional basis for the protection of environment, as well as other controversial suggestions, such as those aiming at enabling positive discrimination measures towards minorities, the guarantee of media pluralism, the protection of privacy and personal data and the respect of human dignity. It concludes on the use and misuses of comparative law for constitutional reforms.
. These points of reference might be religious rules, but the more common path is to include expressly certain overarching constitutional principles or extra-constitutional content in the preamble. The approach of Saudi Arabia is an excellent example of
2nd paragraph of the preamble of Council Directive 93/42/EEC of 14 June 1993 concerning medical devices. / http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uriCONSLEG:1993L0042:20071011:hu
The paper may serve as a good practical guidance for a foreign reader to the conception of the new Hungarian Civil Code. After a brief historical review, and description of the drafting process, the paper summarises the principal issues addressed in the Conception of the New Civil Code ("Conception"). These are: the proposed structure is a comprehensive code, covering all ranges of matters that are related to civil law, including commercial law, family matters, labour law, company law, intellectual property and conflict of laws issues. Then the paper describes the most important specific amendment proposals in the various fields covered by the Code: introduction of a preamble, basic principles of the civil law, rules regarding legal entities, property rights, contract law, including liability, and finally in the field of the law on succession.
