Papers by Tomasz Wieciech
Revista de Drept Constituțional
Under Article V of the United States Constitution Congress is required to call a convention to pr... more Under Article V of the United States Constitution Congress is required to call a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution whenever two thirds of states legislatures so apply. The exact nature and extent of Congress's authority granted by this provision of the Constitution are, however, unclear. The most contentious questions are whether Article V gives Congress legislative authority to establish rules governing the convention of states process; whether they can scrutinize states' applications and make final decisions regarding their validity, and to what extent the Constitution authorizes federal legislature to control organization of a convention of states and its deliberations. There is no ready answer to neither of these questions, yet they need to be addressed to properly establish what does the obligation to call a convention of states put upon Congress by the Constitution actually entail. The prospect of such a convention may still be dim, still in recent years the alternative route to amend the Constitution has certainly attracted new attention. The extent of Congress's authority under Article V has never been firmly established. In this article we argue that congressional powers regarding convention of states process are strictly limited. To support this conclusion we rely on textual, historical, and structural arguments.
By constitutional convention the Queen and her representatives, the governor-generals, can act on... more By constitutional convention the Queen and her representatives, the governor-generals, can act only on the advice of their respective responsible ministers. Therefore all of the powers that are in their possession, whether their source is derived from prerogative or the constitution, are exercised not personally by them but through cabinet ministers. However, in certain extraordinary circumstances the Crown is constitutionally entitled to act on its own initiative, without or - better still - contrary to the advice that it receives. Those powers that can be exercised personally by the Queen are commonly referred to as reserve powers, sometimes also as personal prerogatives. The most important of them are the power to appoint and dismiss a prime minister and to dissolve parliament. Reserve powers also include the right to refuse royal sanction, the appointment of peers, judges or senators, as well as summoning and proroguing parliament. The scope of reserve powers differ according to...
O ne of the characteristics of the federal system which distinguishes it as a form of organisatio... more O ne of the characteristics of the federal system which distinguishes it as a form of organisation of government is the participation of the entities of the federation in wielding federal power, which is made possible above all by their representation in the structure of federal bodies. 1 This representation is inscribed in the wider principle of participation (shared rule), which is shown to be one of two principles, alongside autonomy (self rule), of the federal system. 2 An element of the principle of shared rule is also the special procedure of change of a constitutional system, which requires the involvement of the objects of the federation, while an equally important role is played by the structure of state bodies of the federation, thanks to which participation of the constituent units in the federal decision process becomes possible. Of particular importance here is the separate representation of the territorial communities forming the federation in the federal parliament, which is supposed to guarantee them a role in the creation of federal law and permit the articulation of interests at a nationwide legislative forum. Characteristic of federalism is the principle of double representation. "In federations 'the people' is treated as one being in a sense, and as a number of beings in another. The people is represented as a whole (nation) and as [individual] parts (separate regions forming the nation)." 3 1
El parlamentarisme en perspectiva històrica: parlaments multinivell, Vol. 2, 2019 (Fonts per a la història parlamentària; Formes de representació política des de l'Edat Mitjana fins a l'actualitat. Les assemblees representatives de la Corona d'Aragó), ISBN 9788409111626, págs. 977-998, 2019
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Papers by Tomasz Wieciech