Summary
The idea of constitutionality, which includes the acceptance of division of power, is one of those which helped the process of establishing the constituting of new century Serbian state. In the attempt to implement the principle of division of power, which characterizes the modern state, there was a need to establish the legislative power, together with executive and judicial power. Establishment of modern monarchy, i.e. limited and strictly institutionalized, demanded the presence of other bodies at the highest level in the state, bodies that would compete with monarch in constitutional division of legislative competences. That was effected primarily by affirming the idea of peoples representation, constitutional verification of the State Council (according to the provisions of the first two constitutions) and then also the National Assembly (from the Regents Constitution - Namjesnički ustav), as serious pretendents to win the most important prerogatives of legislative power. To what extent the idea has been realized depended, as the author showed in the paper, on concrete and real social and political reality, relations between the political forces and readiness of the rulers to accept constitutionally regulated competences of legislative power. Those, certainly led to successive limitation of the monarch constitutional powers in favor of representative body, such as National Assembly according to the constitution of 1888 and Constitution of 1903, when it was already clear that monarch changed from “slightly” limited ruler (knez) to, by the rules of parliamentary game, depowered king. In that process of endless constitutional struggle monarch endeavored to defend his share in legislative power by the right of legislative initiative, and especially by legislative sanction (veto). Successfulness of those efforts depended, as it was discussed in the paper, on the real power that veto institution had during the constitutional and political development of Serbia in the mentioned period.
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