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May 3rd Constitution ( 1891 painting by Jan Matejko) ()Government Act of May 3, 1791 (Ustawa rzadowa z 3ego Maja 1791, also May 3rd Constitution) was the first written national constitution in Europe, and the world's second, after the United States Constitution. The May 3rd Constitution was adopted by the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on May 3, 1791.
1 Importance of the constitution
Polish King Stanislaw August's campaign for national renewal reached a climax on May 3rd, 1791, when, after three years of intense debate, the " Four-Year Sejm " produced Europe's first written national constitution. Conceived in the liberal spirit of the contemporaneous document in the United States, the constitution recast the erstwhile Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a unitary state with a hereditary monarchy, and abolished many of the deleterious features of the old system. The new constitution abolished the individual "free veto" ( liberum veto) in the sejm ( parliamentAlternative meanings: Parliamentary system, Parliament (band), Parliament (cigarette). A parliament is a legislative body, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system derived from that of the United Kingdom.); provided for a separation of powersSeparation of powers is the idea that the powers of a sovereign government should be split between two or more strongly independent entities, preventing any one person or group from gaining too much power. The three-branch theory The concept of the separa among legislative, executiveExecutive can mean: Executive (government), a branch of government; A functionary in a commercial or non-commercial organisation. The term logically refers to any employee, but often becomes restricted in meaning to any manager, and sometimes especially t, and judicial branches of government; and established "popular sovereignty" (for the nobleNoble can refer to a member of the nobility a Noble gas or Noble is a British automobile manufacturer. There are also several places named Noble in the United States: Noble, Illinois Noble, Louisiana Noble, Oklahoma Noble County, Indiana Noble County, Okl-- szlachta--and bourgeois classes). Although never fully implemented, the May 3rd Constitution gained an honored place in the Polish political heritage; tradition marks the anniversary of its adoption as the country's most important civic holiday.
Principal features of the May 3rd Constitution included:
- a greater degree of unification of the state;
- religious tolerance, except for apostasy from the Catholic faith;
- granting of political rights to citizens of the cities;
- abolition of the liberum veto and confederations; and
- provision for free election of a king only following the extinction of an anticipated Saxon dynasty .
Chief authors of the May 3rd Constitution were:
