Abstrakt

Relationships between the state and religious denominations in Poland are determined mainly by Sec. 25 of the Republic of Poland Constitution of 1997. Subsection 5 of that norm deals with the procedure of establishing the relations with confessional communities other than the Catholic Church. Relations with non-Roman Catholic religious bodies are therefore regulated by parliamentary acts passed on the basis of contracts (“confessional contracts”) signed on one side by the Council of Ministers (the Cabinet) and on the other by representatives of respective denominations. Such a contract is to be regarded as a preliminary condition of any legislative action taken by members of Parliament. The abovementioned constitutional provision requires enactment of specific parliamentary bylaws that would guarantee the compliance of particular act passed by both Houses of Parliament with a confessional contract that was the source of it. The presented paper highlights obligations defined by Sec. 25(5), which appear to burden both parties of the state-church contracts at the stage of parliamentary proceedings. Particularly, it characterizes: 1) the Cabinet’s duty of submitting the governmental draft act based on the confessional contract to the House of Deputies; 2) the Council of Ministers’ obligation of safeguarding (to the possible extent) the substantial identity of the draft with the contract while in the Parliament; 3) the public power’s duty of restraining the parliamentary proceeding as the draft or the passed act includes clauses contradicting the consent reached by the Council of Ministers and religious denomination at the stage of concluding the confessional contract. Religious partner bears in turn mainly the responsibility of: 1) deciding whether it would support the initiative regarding the introduction of the draft act to the House of Deputies offered by objects other then the Council of Ministers; 2) observing the deliberations of the draft act (or act itself) while in the Parliament; 3) responding to the formal question formulated by the representative of the House of Deputies (the Speaker would be the proper agent) concerning the expediency of further promotion of the draft act or act itself that was subjected to substantial parliamentary alterations.