The Constitution of Latvia (, ) is the fundamental law of the Republic of Latvia. The Satversme is the oldest Eastern or Central European constitution still in force and the sixth oldest still-functioning republican basic law in the world.Jarinovska, K. "Popular Initiatives as Means of Altering the Core of the Republic of Latvia", Juridica International. Vol. 20, 2013. p. 152 It was adopted, as it states itself in the text, by the people of Latvia, as represented in the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia, on 15 February 1922 and came into force on 7 November 1922. It was heavily influenced by Germany's Weimar Constitution and the Swiss Federal Constitution. The constitution establishes the main bodies of government (Saeima, State President, Cabinet of Ministers, Courts, State Auditor); it consists of 116 articles arranged in eight chapters.
Although the initial text consisted of two parts, the second part - which regulated citizens' rights, freedoms and obligations - failed to pass by just a few votes; the chapter on fundamental human rights was added only by a constitutional amendment in 1998.
After the 1934 Latvian coup d'état by Prime Minister of Latvia Kārlis Ulmanis, Satversme was suspended and government assumed the law-giving functions of the Saeima. This situation continued until June 17, 1940, when the Soviet Union occupied Latvia, destroyed the existing regime, and incorporated the Latvian SSR into the USSR on August 5. A new, Soviet-style constitution was then introduced.
On May 4, 1990 the Supreme Soviet of LSSR passed the declaration On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia, declaring the 1940 Soviet annexation of Latvia illegal (as it was done by ignoring Satversme), and therefore the Satversme and Republic of Latvia still existed de jure. Only articles 1, 2, 3 and 6 of Satversme were reintroduced at that time by the declaration; the constitution was fully reintroduced only by the first assembly of the 5th Saeima in 1993.
Etymology In Latvian, satversme is officially used instead of 'constitution' (konstitūcija), while in everyday conversations "konstitūcija" is often used. The word was created by Atis Kronvalds, one of the leaders of the First Latvian National Awakening in the 19th century. The movement was trying to promote Latvian culture after centuries of Baltic German influence and encourage use of the Latvian language. Kronvalds and like-minded individuals created and introduced many new words and terms intended to be used over Germanic loanwords to modernize Latvian. He derived the term "satversme" from the root -tvert- ("to grip"), combining it with the prefix "sa-", which yields the word satvert (to grasp), adding the -sm- suffix and the feminine ending "-e", creating a word that in its meaning is similar to "holder", to illustrate how a constitution holds together all other laws.Atis Kronvalds (retrieved on 2007-05-26)Politics in Latvia (retrieved on 2007-05-26)
Other examples of the use of the word include the Satversme of the University of Latvia and the Constitution Protection Bureau.
History The Constitution was drafted by the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia (Satversmes sapulce), which consisted of 150 members (later 152) elected in April 1920 in general elections. The initial text was elaborated by a Constitutional committee (Satversmes komisija) and consisted of two parts. It was influenced by ideas of the Weimar Constitution and the Swiss Federal Constitution. The first regulated the state's institutions; the second, citizens' rights and obligations. The committee presented its work on 20 September 1921. The first part of the bill was passed on 15 February 1922, while the second part on 5 April 1922 received 62 "Yes" votes, 6 "No" votes and 62 abstentions, which were counted as "No", and therefore was not adopted, mostly because Latgale parties were against it.Šodien priekš 90 gadiem — Satversmes sapulce balso par Satversmes 2.daļas pieņemšanu On 20 June 1922 a law was passed that set the new constitution to come into force at 12 a.m. on 7 November 1922. The Constitutional Assembly: The first elected parliament of Latvia (Retrieved on 24 December 2006) Freibergs J. (1998, 2001) Jaunāko laiku vēsture 20. gadsimts Zvaigzne ABC
On 15 May 1934 Latvian coup d'état led by Kārlis Ulmanis took place; the subsequent cabinet of Ulmanis passed a declaration that gave the functions of parliament to the Cabinet of Ministers until a new constitution was to be drafted, which never happened. Resolution of Five senators of Senate of Latvia on validity of Constitution of Latvia and authority of Saeima in conditions of occupation (Retrieved on 24 December 2006) In 1940 Latvian SSR was established by occupying Soviet Union forces and a parliament called the "People's Saeima of Latvia" was elected. The legality of this parliament and its decisions is questioned–Soviets considered that the constitution was nullified by Ulmanis' coup d'état, so the People's Saeima never formally annulled it. However, Latvian lawyers and historians observe that the constitution was still in effect, since Ulmanis' declaration only assigned the functions of the Saeima to the cabinet and did not cancel any part of the constitution, and that the People's Saeima was elected in accordance with the constitution of Russian SFSR, not in accordance with that of Latvia, and thus it had no legal rights to legislate, and by declaring accession to the Soviet Union, it broke the first article of the Satversme.
After declaring accession to the USSR, the People's Saeima drafted a Constitution of LSSR on the basis of the 1936 Soviet Constitution. It was adopted a month after, on 25 August 1940. On 18 April 1978 the government of the LSSR adopted a new constitution modeled on the 1977 Soviet Constitution. Editorial board of chief editorial office of encyclopedias (1987) Politiskā enciklopēdija Chief editorial office of encyclopedias
On 4 May 1990 the Supreme Soviet of LSSR declared restoration of Latvia's independence and adopted articles 1, 2, 3 and 6 of the constitution of 1922. The rest of the constitution remained in abeyance until it was reviewed to fit the modern situation, Declaration of independence of 4 May 1990 (Retrieved on 24 December 2006) thus the constitution was fully reinforced by 5th Saeima on 6 July 1993, First sitting of 5th Saeima (transcript) (Retrieved on 2 January 2007) in accordance to 14 article of law "On organisation of job of Supreme Council of Republic of Latvia". Law "On organisation of job of Supreme Council of Republic of Latvia" (Retrieved on 2 January 2007) In 1992 neighboring Estonia voted on a new Constitution of Estonia as did Lithuania with Constitution of Lithuania, as their pre-war constitutions had been written and amended during their authoritarian regimes, while Ulmanis regime had not changed anything in the democratic Satversme of 1922.
Origins
Latvia was one of the early post World War I nations which adopted some ideas from the 1919 Weimar Constitution. Liberal lawyer Hugo Preuß (Preuss) is often attributed as the author of the draft version of the constitution that was passed by the Weimar National Assembly, which historian William L. Shirer in a book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich regards as "the most liberal and democratic document of its kind the twentieth century had ever seen ... full of ingenious and admirable devices which seemed to guarantee the working of an almost flawless democracy.". In Latvia some early law experts such as Kārlis Dišlers, Fēlikss Cielēns and modern day jurists agree that Weimar Constitution was underlying the wording of the Constitution of Latvia (Satversme), and in some way is a synthesis between the Weimar Constitution and Westminster system used in the United Kingdom.
Some similarities between Weimar Constitution and Latvian are:
The establishment of state institutions of the Weimar Republic and the Republic of Latvia, which began with the establishment of a pre-parliament, which in Germany was Council of the People's Deputies, in Latvia - People's Council of Latvia. The adoption of the election law in Germany - The Law of the Council of People's Deputies of 29 November 1918 on the elections of the National Assembly, in Latvia - The Law of the People's Council of 19 August 1919 on Elections of the Constitutional Assembly The creation of governmental institution which members are elected by the people whose aim is to draft a constitution. In Germany it was - The Weimar National Assembly convened on February 6, 1919. In Latvia - The Constitutional Assembly, convened on May 1, 1920. Latvia, similarly to the Weimar Republic, adopted a temporary constitutional laws, in the Weimar Republic Law on Provisional State Power (Das Gesetz über die vorläufige Staatsgewalt), in Latvia, Declaration on the State of Latvia and Provisions of the Latvian State, in order to regulate relations in the state prior the constitution Within the process of drafting the constitution, a special commission was established, in Germany - "Constitutional Commission of the National Assembly" (Verfassungskommission), in Latvia - "Constitutional Commission of the Constitutional Assembly" The Social Democrats were widely represented in both the National Assembly in Weimar and the Constitutional Assembly in Latvia. The Latvian Social Democrats had close ties with Germany, which made it easier to access and exchange information of ideas with the new Weimar Republic. This is sometimes evidenced by the very similar arguments of the Social Democrats in the process of drafting the constitution: Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) warned that the President should not be given unlimited powers, as the President was perceived as a kind of "substitute kaiser". In Latvia, the Latvian Social Democrats defended the principle that the president ideologically is the heir to the monarch).
During the drafting of the Satversme, the Weimar Constitution was the most modern and progressive system of constitutional control at the time. The German republic system chosen as the Weimar Constitution corresponded to the ideas of national and statehood ideas of Latvia as well. The historical influence of Germany, including legal, in the Latvian territory, with its significant influence on the legal consciousness of the Latvian people, allowed to take over the norms of the Weimar Constitution not only formally, but also to envisage their settlement in the general population and society. German, being one of the working languages in the Constitutional Assembly in Latvia and as a widely known language at that place and time, contributed to the choice of the Weimar Constitution as a system for the Satversme.
According to the transcripts of the meetings of the Constitutional Assembly, the deputies of the Constitutional Assembly sometimes referred to Satversme as a derivation of the Weimar Constitution, especially to the draft Part II of the Satversme. Comparing the Weimar Constitution and the Latvian Constitution adopted in 1922, it can be noticed that the Constitution does not contain fundamental human rights. At the same time, the failure to accept Part II of the Satversme is not a deliberate abandonment of the model of the Weimar Constitution, but the reason for not accepting it is a political dispute over the content of individual rights.
Overview
The Constitution of Latvia is a codified constitution and currently consists of 116 articles arranged in eight chapters: Constitution of the Republic of Latvia with amendments and revisions (Official english translation) (Retrieved on 24 December 2006) Chapter 1: General Provisions (articles 1-4) Chapter 2: Saeima (articles 5-34) Chapter 3: The President (articles 35-54) Chapter 4: The Cabinet (articles 55-63) Chapter 5: Legislation (articles 64-81) Chapter 6: Courts (articles 82-86) Chapter 7: The State Audit Office (articles 87-88)