Legal Eye: The path from promise to law

Taking this as a sign to brush up on my Polish civics, I decided to review the legislative process in Poland. The Polish Constitution explains it all. However, its moral is the same: it's a long journey from campaign promise to law.

Make a draft

Having been completely inundated with a selection of smiling/serious/hand-shaking campaign billboard ads, I am actually wistful for the usual inane advertising that is splashed around the city. Let's say that I want to enact a law to limit the use of billboard advertising by political parties and I've even gone so far as to write down a draft of the bill. Now, I need to start the legislative process.

The legislative process begins with the bill's introduction in the Sejm. I need to convince members of the Sejm, the Senate, the President, the Council of Ministers or 100,000 Polish citizens eligible to vote that Poland really needs the Gliniecki Campaign Billboard Limitation bill. 

Convince the committee

Once introduced, the bill is reviewed by the Sejm. Most likely, it will be referred to one of the approximately 30 parliamentary committees for review, revision and consideration. If it does not die in committee (who ever said meetings were not detrimental to your health?), it will then be brought to a vote by the entire Sejm. To be adopted, a simple majority of Sejm members with quorum of at least half must approve the Gliniecki Campaign Billboard Limitation bill.

Swing the Senate

From here, my bill moves to the Senate, which has 30 days to approve, amend or reject it. Let's say that the Senate amends it to ban another pet peeve: endorsements from pop stars in political campaigns. Then, it goes back to the Sejm for a vote on this and any other amendment separately.

The final draft of the bill is now sent to the President for signing. The President has only 21 days to sign the bill into law. However, as the Gliniecki Campaign Billboard Limitation bill might run afoul of a little right called freedom of speech, the President would likely send the bill to the Constitutional Tribunal to examine its constitutionality. Assuming the Constitutional Tribunal determines that my bill is constitutional, it goes back to the President for signing.

Make it public

At last, only publication remains. The Gliniecki Campaign Billboard Limitation Act would become an official law upon its publication in the Journal of Laws.

This simple outline, of course, does not track the debates, additional review, sit-ins, general brouhaha and other features that are  obstacles in the journey from campaign promise to law. As Bismarck once said: "Politics is not an exact science."

Judith Gliniecki is the managing partner of Rymar and Partners