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The monograph of Joanna Marszałek-Kawa concerns one of the key problems of the European integration process: the impact of European Union membership on the position of the national parliament. It is clear that EU membership affects the constitutional status and functions of national legislature in a number of ways. The author hypothesised the following: „After the accession of Poland to the European Union, both the Polish constitutional status and functions of the Sejm of the RP have significantly changed. The Council of Ministers became an authority that partly assumed its competences, which in practice should be viewed as dominance of an executive over a legislative branch. As a result of accession, prerogatives of the Sejm were significantly reduced in favour of the government. The fall of legislative sovereignty took place when the amendments made were more and more oft en assessed.”

The article analyses the phenomenon of parliamentary diplomacy. Although the international activity of parliamentarians was already observed in the 19 th century, it did not gain momentum until the 20 th and 21 st centuries, becoming an important element of international relations. The author indicates which manifestations of the international activity of parliamentarians deserve the name of parliamentary diplomacy and how this phenomenon, analysed in terms of "paradiplomacy", influences the modification of the functions of modern parliaments, especially in terms of ensuring democratic control over the creation and implementation of the state's foreign policy.

The author analyzed the premises that would justify changes to the constitution. Prerequisites such as aesthetics, stability and functionality are at the center of attention. Based on the experience of the Polish political system after 2015, the author stated that the pursuit of the aesthetics of the constitution, in the form of its brevity and general character of the norms, is still relevant, but it cannot be a decisive premise. It is much more important to strive for the precision of norms in order to ensure the functionality of the constitution as the main stabilizer of the system. These experiences teach that the application of the constitution cannot be presumed in good faith, and all its essential provisions should be tested to the extent that they can be interpreted in bad faith, e.g. by creating a field for circumventing the constitution.

Abstract:The author analyses the dynamics of the Polish party system in the light of the outcomes of the parliamentary elections in the Third Republic of Poland (since 1989). He exposes especially the last element of that evolution -the 2015 parliamentary election. It resulted with the victory of Law and Justice (PiS) party. For the first time in the history of democratic Poland, the victor was able to create government without having to negotiate with coalition partners. The success of PiS seems to be a result of the combination of several factors. It would be mistaken to portray an emerging situation as a simple rightist win. PiS to some extent represents a social attitudes, typical for the socialist (social-democratic) parties, with some part of program including a populist message, but with the combination of conservative approach to several issues and nationalistic stand on perception of patriotic mood. Important meaning have a support of PiS by the Catholic Church, especially in the grass-roots level. The victory of PiS and forming of the majority government have an important meaning for the functioning of the political parties' system in Poland. For the first time since 1989 there were not balancing of power situation which the coalition governments has brings about. The political parties, creating the opposition in parliament, must offer a new strategy of behaviour in such circumstances, especially dealing with challenging the PiS policy to compromise a democratic system based on the 1997 Constitution, e.g. division of power, position of the Constitutional Tribunal and functioning of the judiciary.