Steigiamojo seimo 1920 m. gegužės 15-osios aktas ir jo konstitucinė reikšmė

Abstract

The article deals with the constitutional significance of the resolution passed by the Lithuanian Constituent Seimas on May 15 1920. The resolution provides that the Constituent Seimas „expressing the will of the Lithuanian people, proclaims an independent Lithuanian state having been restored as a democratic republic with ethnological boarders and free from all the former state relations with other states". It is not widely discussed in the available literature asserting that this resolution has only ratified the Act of Lithuanian independence of February 16, 1918, passed by the so-called Lithuanian Council. The author indicates that the act has been proclaimed on behalf of the Lithuanian nation whereas the Constituent Seimas being elected by the general election put it into effect on behalf of the Lithuanian people. Lithuanian Council declared itself restoring an independent Lithuanian state i.e., carrying out a continued action, whereas the Constituent Seimas declared or already restored state, i.e. as a completed fact. The Lithuanian Council promised to restore a state based on democratic principles, whereas the Constituent Seimas pointed out to have already had a concrete form of its state government, i.e. democratic republic. Furthermore, it is stated that the resolution of the Constituent Seimas having legally consolidated the independence of the Lithuanian state and defined the form of that state, became a significant landmark in the development of the Lithuanian Constitution, that could be destroyed neither by the efforts of invaders nor ruined in the course of time.