History
The Constitution was drafted by the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia (Satversmes sapulce), which consisted of 150 members elected in general elections. The initial bill was elaborated by a Constitutional committee (Satversmes komisija) and consisted of two parts. It was influenced by ideas of Weimar Constitution and Swiss Federal Constitution. The first regulated the state's institutions; the second, citizens' rights and obligations. The committee presented its work on 20 September 1921. The first part of the bill was passed on 15 February 1922, while the second part was voted down on 5 April 1922. On 20 June 1922 a law was passed that set the new constitution to come into force at 12 a.m. on 7 November 1922. On 15 May 1934, a coup d'etat led by Kārlis Ulmanis took place; the subsequent cabinet of Ulmanis passed a declaration that gave the functions of parliament to the Cabinet of Ministers until a new constitution was drafted, which never happened. During World War II a Soviet government was established and a parliament called the "People's Saeima of Latvia" was elected. The legality of this parliament and its decisions is questioned–Soviets considered that the constitution was nullified by Ulmanis' coup d'état, so the People's Saeima never formally annulled it. However, Latvian lawyers and historians observe that the constitution was still in effect, since Ulmanis' declaration only assigned the functions of the Saeima to the cabinet and did not cancel any part of the constitution, and that the People's Saeima was elected in accordance with the constitution of Russian SFSR, not in accordance with that of Latvia, and thus it had no legal rights to legislate, and by declaring accession to the Soviet Union, it broke the first article of the Satversme. After declaring accession to the USSR, the People's Saeima drafted a Constitution of LSSR on the basis of the Constitution of the Soviet Union. It was adopted a month after, on 25 August 1940. On 18 April 1978 the government of the LSSR adopted a new constitution. On 4 May 1990 the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia declared Latvia independent and adopted articles 1, 2, 3 and 6 of the constitution of 1922. The rest of the constitution remained in abeyance until it was reviewed to fit the modern situation, thus the constitution was fully reinforced by 5th Saeima on 6 July 1993 in accordance to 14 article of law "On organisation of job of Supreme Council of Republic of Latvia"
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