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Liberum veto
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'''Liberum Veto''' is a parliamentary voting system used in
Poland (the 17th and 18th century), by which any member of parliament could veto (latin: Liberum Veto) a law with a single vote.
In other words all resolutions had to be carried unanimously (governing by unanimous consent).
The phrase ''Liberum Veto'' comes from
Latin: ''liberum'', unrestricted, and ''veto'', "I forbid".
'''''Liberum veto''''' (
Latin: "free veto") was a parliamentary device in the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that allowed any
Chamber of Deputies deputy to a
Sejm to force an immediate end to the current session and nullify all legislation already passed at it.
This rule evolved from a
unanimity principle, and the latter from the federative character of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was essentially a
federation 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 his
sejmik for all decisions taken at the Sejm. A decision taken by a majority against the will of a minority (even if only a single
sejmik) 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,
Wladyslaw Sicinski 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, in
Kraków, that a Sejm was prematurely disrupted on the strength of the ''liberum veto'', by the
Kiev 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 neighbors — chiefly
Russia and
Prussia — found this a useful tool to frustrate attempts at reforming and strengthening the Commonwealth. The latter deteriorated from a European power into a state of
anarchy (word) anarchy.
After 1764 the ''liberum veto'' practically went out of use: the principle of unanimity did not bind "
confederated sejms," 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 a
confederated 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 another
confederated sejm, meeting at
Grodno in 1793. That Sejm, under duress from Russia and Prussia, ratified the penultimate, Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Category:History of Poland (1569–1795)
Category:Polish law
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