CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-MAKING PROCESS IN THE POLISH COMMONWEALTH IN THE 16-18TH CENTURIES

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present the constitutional law-making process in the Commonwealth of Poland, which was established as a merger of Poland and Lithuania in 1569. The system of the state was defined in the constitution of the Coronation Sejm of King Stefan Batory in 1576, adopted on the basis of a resolution prepared during the Election Sejm of the first elected king, Henry de Valois, 1573. The provisions of the resolution were called Articuli Henriciani after the king. The constitution provided for a hierarchy of norms determining the position of the organs: the King, the Sejm and the Council of the Kingdom, which were united in one supreme sovereign state organ with the power to make law achieved by consensus.