Constitution of Poland

The Constitution of the Republic of Poland (Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej or Konstytucja RP for short) is the supreme law of the Republic of Poland, which is also commonly called the Third Polish Republic (III Rzeczpospolita or III RP for short) in contrast with the preceding systems. The Constitution of Poland, which is in force, was ratified on 2 April 1997. The Constitution is also commonly referred to as the 1997 Constitution. It replaced the Small Constitution of 1992, the last amended version of the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic, known from December 1989 as the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. It was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland on 2 April 1997, approved by a national referendum on 25 May 1997, promulgated by the President of the Republic on 16 July 1997, and came into effect on 17 October 1997. Poland has had numerous previous constitutional acts. Historically, the most significant is the Constitution of 3 May 1791. The five years after 1992 were spent in dialogue about the new character of Poland. The nation had changed significantly since 1952 when the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic was instituted. A new consensus was needed on how to acknowledge the awkward parts of Polish history; the transformation from a one-party system into a multi-party one and from socialism towards a free market economic system; and the rise of pluralism alongside Poland's historically Roman Catholic culture. The attitude toward the past was articulated in the preamble, in which the citizens of Poland established a Republic "Recalling the best traditions of the First and the Second Republic, Obliged to bequeath to future generations all that is valuable from our over one thousand years' heritage ... Mindful of the bitter experiences of the times when fundamental freedoms and human rights were violated in our Homeland, ...". Many articles were written explicitly to rectify the wrongs of previous governments.