- Liberum veto
"Liberum veto" (
Latin : "I freely forbid") was a parliamentary device in thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that allowed any deputy to aSejm to force an immediate end to the current session and nullify all legislation already passed at it.This rule evolved from a
unanimity principle (unanimous consent), and the latter from the federative character of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was essentially afederation of countries. Each deputy to a Sejm was elected at a local "regional" "sejm" (sejmik ) and represented the entire region. He thus assumed responsibility to hissejmik for all decisions taken at the Sejm. A decision taken by a majority against the will of a minority (even if only a singlesejmik ) was considered a violation of the principle of political equality.It is commonly, and erroneously, believed that a Sejm was first disrupted by means of "liberum veto" by a
Trakai deputy,Władysław Siciński , in 1652. In reality, however, he only vetoed the continuation of the Sejm's deliberations beyond the statutory time limit. It was only in 1669, inKraków , that a Sejm was prematurely disrupted on the strength of the "liberum veto", by theKiev deputy,Adam Olizar .In the first half of the 18th century, it became increasingly common for Sejm sessions to be broken up by "liberum veto", as the Commonwealth's neighbours — chiefly
Russia andPrussia — found this a useful tool to frustrate attempts at reforming and strengthening the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth deteriorated from a European power into a state of anarchy.1764
After 1764 the "liberum veto" practically went out of use: the principle of unanimity did not bind "
confederated sejm s," and so deputies formed a "confederation" (Polish: konfederacja) at the beginning of a session in order to prevent its disruption by "liberum veto".The "liberum veto" was abolished by the
May 3rd, 1791, Constitution (adopted by aconfederated sejm ), which permanently established the principle of majority rule.The achievements of that
constitution , however — claimed to be Europe's first modern codified constitution — were undone by anotherconfederated sejm , meeting atGrodno in 1793. That Sejm, under duress from Russia and Prussia, ratified the penultimate, Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.References
ee also
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consensus decision-making
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