Lawyer's Day and the First Constitution of Bulgaria (16/04)

On April 16, Bulgaria celebrates Lawyer's Day and the holiday of the First Bulgarian Constitution (the Tarnovo Constitution, adopted by the country's First Great People's Assembly in 1879).

The Tarnovo Constitution was almost exactly copied from the Belgian Constitution — at one time the most progressive Constitution — and assigned Bulgaria the state structure of a constitutional monarchy with parliamentary legislative power.

Subsequently, the powers of the monarch steadily increased, to the point that in 1934 the Tarnovo Constitution was completely violated by Boris III by establishing his regime of personal power. Then all parties were banned, and the cabinet of ministers began to be appointed personally by the tsar. After September 9, 1944, the Tarnovo Constitution was restored, but briefly — after a referendum in 1946, the monarchy was overthrown and the Grand People's Assembly was reconvened.

During the years of socialism in Bulgaria, «Dimitrovskaya» (since 1947) and «Zhivkovskaya» (since 1971) of the Constitution operated sequentially. The Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, adopted by the Seventh Great People's Assembly of the country on July 12, 1991, is now in force. According to this Constitution, Bulgaria is a — parliamentary republic with a parliament. Elections to the People's Assembly are held every 4 years. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers are nominated by the People's Assembly.

The new Constitution enshrined the statute of the head of state — of the President, whose powers are limited. Elections for the President of the country are held once every 5 years. This Constitution abolishes the clause that assigns a leadership role to a certain party in the country (as was the case with the Bulgarian Communist Party before), and also specifies the inviolability of private property.

The Constitution clearly distinguishes between three types of power — legislative, executive and judicial. Freedom of religion, freedom of parties and associations, freedom of opinion, the press, and freedom of enterprise have been declared. Higher education institutions have academic autonomy.

The professional holiday of lawyers is also celebrated on this day in the country on the initiative of the Bulgarian Lawyers Union.

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