Papers and Documents relating to the Foreign Relations of Hungary, Volume 1, 1919–1920 (Budapest, 1939)

Appendix II. Statutes

1. Law No. I of 1920 ( as amendedjby Law No. XVII of 1920) concerning the re-establishment of the constitutional order and the temporary exercise of the sovereign power.

1 [TRANSLATION] The National Assembly, as the exclusive lawful representative of the national sovereignty, hereby declares that the royal power ceased to be exercised as on November 13,1918. It declares furthermore that Hungary's indivisible and inseparable union with the lands and provinces represented in the Austrian Empire Council was dissolved by virtue of the events which have taken place. The National Assembly reserves its right to establish the new regime resulting from these facts after the conclusion of peace. The National Assembly further declares that the House of Representatives of the Parliament, lawfully convoked on June 21, 1910, dissolved itself by resolution of November 16, 1918; and that the House of Lords of the same Parliament, took note of this resolution in its meeting held on the same date and adjourned; in consequence thereof the Parliament ceased to function. Due to these facts, the exercise of the State's sovereign power in accordance with the constitutional rules became impossible. The provisional governments formed since August 7, 1919, pursuant to fundamental constitutional principles requested the nation to elect a national assembly on the basis of a general, secret, direct and compulsory franchise which should also be granted to women. Pursuant to this request, representatives were elected in all parts of the country where enemy occupation did not render it impossible, and the elected representatives, meeting in the Parliament building at Budapest on February 16, 1920, formed this National Assembly. The National Assembly thus constituted enacts the following statute: 1 The Hungarian text of Law No. I is published in Országos Törvénytár (Collection of Statues) 1920, No. 1 (February 29, 1920) ; the amending Law No. XVII, in Országos Törvénytár, 1920, No. 12 (August 19, 1920).